Rose’s POV
The moment I stepped out of the elevator onto the twelfth floor that morning, the entire office was buzzing with a kind of nervous energy I hadn’t seen in months. Whispers floated through the open-plan workspace like static electricity.
“Have you seen him yet?”
“God, he’s even more handsome in person.”
“I heard he’s ice-cold… the kind of man who can fire you with one look.”
I adjusted the strap of my worn leather bag on my shoulder and tried to ignore the chatter. My cubicle was in the far corner of the lower-level floor — the “support” section, as they liked to call it politely. The pay was modest, barely enough to cover rent in this overpriced city, and my dreams of a promotion had been quietly dying for the past year and a half. Still, I showed up every day, did my wor
