~VICTORIA~

I remembered my first time in the ocean. It was on a cruise with my parents, a trip my father had won at a company raffle during a Christmas party. My mother stayed with me as I stood on the deck, looking at the vastness of the sea for the first time with the wonder-filled eyes of a 10-year-old. There was a feeling of getting cut off from the world, losing anchor, heading to somewhere unfamiliar, strange, and exciting.

I felt that now. While I knew exactly where Sebastian was taking me, spending this moment with him — a curiously intimate moment considering we were almost strangers from different worlds — was unnerving and unreal. Reality felt like a distant memory.

I knew it would never happen again. In a moment of weakness and guilt, Sebastian offered to take me home. In a beautiful car, under a magnificent moon. I would recall this moment on the nights when I'd be alone and lonely or bored. It would be a good memory, but that's as far as this would go.

It was funny, really. I wasn't meeting any eligible men because I was desperately looking for a job. Now I'd found a job, and this gorgeous man was taking me home.

He wasn't even my type. I preferred warm men. Men who smiled. Men who would look at me like I was the only woman in the room. Sebastian only acknowledged my presence when I did something to make him angry. It seemed like most of the time, my existence barely registered in his consciousness.

"Sebastian Chase seems flakey," Nicolette had said, when I had told her about inexplicably getting offered the job despite being turned down the first time. "Are you sure he's the actual CEO and not some crazy Mattheson nephew they gave a VP position to because no one would hire him?"

"I looked it up right after my interview," I said. "It's him, Sebastian Chase, CEO of Mattheson Bank. Apparently he's the son of old man Mattheson, the guy who founded the bank from old Texas oil money."

"Why is his last name Chase, then? Is he one of those wildly enlightened men who take their wives' last name?"

"I don't know." I really couldn't find a definitive answer to that question. I did find out that Chase was Sebastian's mother's maiden name. He hadn't said anything on record, and the media speculation varied: he was adopted, he was an illegitimate son, he was disowned at a young age and accepted back when his brother died and there was no other heir left.

I couldn't bring myself to ask him. Not even when it was just the two of us driving through the quiet night together. It was an intimate space, but I feared I could break the moment with the wrong word.

"Don't fall asleep on me now," Sebastian said. His voice was almost a whisper.

"Oh no," I said. "I'm not tired." I sat up even more straight, as if to prove I was wide awake.

"Really? That must have been a good long nap you had back at the house."

"Sorry. I don't usually just doze off like that."

I felt myself blush, grateful it was probably not bright enough for him to see my face turn red. I could have been drooling in my sleep. Or snoring. Or mumbling things from my dream he probably didn't want to hear.

"You could've switched channels, you know. The other channels have programs that are actually in color."

"Oh no, I watch that channel a lot. I love old movies."

"You're 25," he said. "Is that a hipster thing?"

I laughed. "Do you even know what that is?"

"I assumed it was someone who only liked things that existed before they were born." He turned to me, frowning slightly. "Am I terribly out of touch?"

"Not terribly," I assured him. "How old are you, anyway?" I regretted my words as soon as I spoke them but he didn't seem to mind the question.

"Thirty-two. Does that sound ancient to you?"

"No. But using the word 'terribly' is."

"Really now."

"Sorry." I couldn't help but giggle.

As I observed his profile, I thought I saw a small smile play on his lips. A tiny one.

Maybe one day I'd make him laugh.

Wait, what was that?

I groaned inwardly. It's official. I'm completely crushing on my boss.

His smile disappeared. "This isn't your place?" he asked. He looked alarmed.

"Huh?"

"This is the address. 34 Fenton Street."

We had stopped. I didn't notice. The car was parked in front of a five-story apartment building flanked by an abandoned lot full of piles of scrap metal, and the burnt-down office building that used to hold a bunch of law offices, private investigation firms, and a pawnshop before it was destroyed by a fire a month ago.

I was home.

"Oh right. Yes, this is my place. Thank you again, Mr. Chase."

"Wait!" He put a hand on my shoulder as I opened the passenger car door. "You actually live here?"

"Well, yes." What was his deal? My place was nowhere as nice as his, obviously, but it was a decent apartment in a not-so-terrible neighborhood.

"Is it...safe?" 

His hand rested lightly on my shoulder. It felt warm — suddenly my skin felt hot all over. Oh God I didn't want to move.

I tried not to sound as nervous as I felt.  "It's perfectly safe, Mr. Chase. I've lived here for several years now." And I'd only gotten mugged once. "Are you planning on keeping me in the car all night?"

"Of course not." He let go of my shoulder.

"Thank you again for the ride. I'll see you on Tuesday."

"Right. Good night, Ms. Slade." He still seemed unsure about dropping me off. I felt something funny in my chest as I looked at him.

"Good night," I said.

I got out of the car and walked up to the building. Right before going in, I turned back to smile at him, hoping it would reassure him that I was all right.

~SEBASTIAN~

I felt like a complete idiot.

I could have woken up Connor and asked him to drive Victoria home. Instead, I, Sebastian Chase, CEO of Mattheson Bank, was sitting in my new Bentley, parked in front of what looked like a crack house right next to a burned-down building at two in the morning. I half-expected some thug to come out of the shadows and pull a gun on me at some point. My instincts were urging me to drive away fast before I got shot or stabbed or both.

But I couldn't.

I waited for Victoria to get herself safely inside. You'd think that if one were out at two a.m. on a street where only one streetlight in four was actually lit, one would be running to one's front door. She was practically dawdling as she walked up to her building.

I wanted to get out of the car and walk her to her door. But considering my current state of mind, I was more likely to just pull her back into the car. Then drive her back to my house.

You just want to take her home, I thought to myself. To your home. Your bed.

Surely that was safer than this godforsaken place, right? Or was I just rationalizing my thoughts that were turning increasingly lurid.

Thoughts that included the image of her red hair tumbling across my sheets as I covered her naked body with mine. The sight of her looking up at me through half-closed lids, her mouth agape as she braced herself for the thrust of my ...

Blinking hard, I tried to clear my thoughts. Victoria had disappeared into her front door, and I was the fool sitting outside with my fantasies.

I cursed under my breath as I started the engine.

That was the end of it. It had to be. Nothing good was coming out of thinking about my son's tutor in a sexual way. Could I seduce her? Probably. Most women fell for my charms quite easily. But... she was my employee. And I had a hard rule never to sleep with someone who worked for me. The idea of a sexual employer-employee relationship was distasteful, even exploitative.

I'd had been driving for a while before I noticed my knuckles. They were pale from gripping the steering wheel too hard.