Chapter 5 CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 5

Protecting Her.

Cassian Kent.

The way she moved gracefully when she thought no one was watching, was what was etched in my mind at six am in the morning, preparing for yet another sweet but torturous day in the office with Aria.

The call from Harrison came at seven in the morning when I was still in my home office and nursing my second cup of coffee and trying not to think about the way Aria had looked at me yesterday in that hallway, trapped between me and the wall with her eyes dark and her breathing shallow and her body responding to mine despite every reason she had to hate me.

"Mr. Kent, I need to discuss some concerns about your stepbrother's will," Harrison said, and I felt my blood run cold immediately.

My hands shook slightly that the coffee spilled from the glass, so I set it down carefully and took a deep breath. There was no way he was going to find out. I had made sure that I was very thorough with it.

"What concerns?" I cleared my throat before asking carefully.

"There are some inconsistencies in the will. It's as if certain sections of the will were added or removed after Mr. Richard had initially drafted the will." Harrison said carefull, and I could hear the papers rustling on his end.

It wasn't like me to get nervous or anything, but I knew how much I stood to lose if what I did was found out by Harrison. I could lose the Aria, and no matter how much I pretended to hate her, I didn't want her disappearing from like of sight like she had done three years ago which led her to almost dying in a ditch.

"What part of the will, if I may ask?" I continued in my careful voice, the reason for my actions being the strongest motivation for me to pick up my cup of coffee again.

"Um... the clauses regarding Miss Hartwell's employment conditions and the requirements... They seem to have different timelines from the rest of the documents. It's more like they were added much later, which is suspicious."

My hand tightened on the phone and I forced my voice to remain steady and controlled. "Richard made several revisions in those final months and he was very specific about what he wanted, so it is possible that he made changes to the document that were not properly logged by his assistant."

"I understand that," Harrison said, and he sounded relieved that I had a reasonable explanation. "But protocol requires that I verify these changes with someone who can confirm Mr. Hartwell's intentions, and since you were his most trusted advisor and stepbrother and the executor of his estate, I wanted to confirm with you directly."

"Richard discussed those exact terms with me extensively in the weeks before his death," I said, and the lie came easily after months of practice. "He was concerned about Aria's readiness to take on leadership responsibilities and he wanted to ensure she had proper guidance and structure, which is why he implemented the one-year co-CEO arrangement with such conditions."

It was not entirely a lie because Richard had been concerned about Aria's safety and had asked me to protect her, but he had never said anything about forcing her to work beside me for a year or about creating conditions that would trap her under my control. Those parts of the will were entirely my doing and born of desperation and possessiveness and the terrible knowledge that the moment Aria inherited freely, she would sell her shares and disappear from my life forever.

The office was quiet when I arrived, and as usual, Aria sat hunched over her by her table, her eyes squinting at her laptop, and those red lips pouting like it always did when she was confused about something.

Her eyes kept darting to her phone every single minute, and she jumps when the phone began ringing. The fear in her eyes was evident when she picked up the call and spoke in low hushed tones. Her expression was as if she was begging and crying at the same time.

I put a call across to my personal investigator immediately. I wanted to know whatever or whoever it was that made her this scared. I was going to uproot them from her life and make sure that they never saw the light of the day ever again.

"Sir?" My PI sounded like he had just woken up from bed, but we both knew that business came first.

"I need you to find out everything that Aria Hartwell has been doing for the past few months. I need to know if she's been in contact with anyone that has been threatening her... And if you can, I need all her call records too."

"Noted sir." He sounded like he was heaving himself out of bed. "I'll have everything on your table before the day is over."

"Better."

I hung up the call and decided against going to my office. I could take some time to tease her, see her blush and turn red, especially while she tried resisting me. It was the cutest thing to watch her body respond to my proximity while her mind and hatred for me resisted.

"Do you have a minute?" I asked as I entered without waiting for permission, and she jumped again, clearly not expecting anyone. Her eyes roamed my body for a few seconds before they snapped to my face.

"I am busy," she said, and her voice was tight and strained. "Can this wait?"

"No," I said, and I closed the door behind me and moved to sit in the chair across from her desk. "I came to see how you're doing with work, and of you've made any more mistakes that needs to be reviewed."

"I am doing okay on my own, and you don't need to worry about anything as I have been double checking and reading in between lines." She said through gritted teeth as her eyes shot daggers at me.

I leaned against the doorframe with a lazy smile on my face. "Well... From today, you'll be submitting all your work to me so I'll triple check them."

"That's not a problem. I'll —"

"Alone. In my office. Without any assistants..." I added the last part and watched her lips part as she sat there under my hot gaze.

She was already out of breath when I said the last words. "Margaret will..."

"She won't explain things to you the way I will, and you know it." We both knew my words had double meanings to it, but I enjoyed watching her squirm as her mind deciphered everything.

"Cassian..." She breathed my name slowly, and I could feel the beast underneath me rise slowly as I thought about her gasping my name under the sheets...

It hadn't happened yet, but a man could dream.

"That's my name. Is there any problem, Aria?" I teased again.

"I'm working." She managed, and my lips just curved into a smile.

I wondered what her reaction would be if she ever found out that I changed her father's will just so she could be close to me. She would be upset, of course, but I was going to claim her before then so it wouldn't make any difference if it happened.