The Intern: Enemies To Lovers

What didn’t help was that Hannah was giving me exactly what I’d asked for. But she was fucking everywhere I looked. When I peeked out my office door, she would be camped just outside at her desk. When I returned to my office after meetings, she would have breakfast waiting for me or lunch or more coffee. When I went home at night, I would find her things, like her sweater hanging over the back of my barstool, where she’d forgotten it the last time she came over. When I scrolled through social media before passing out at night, I would see her posts.

She wasn’t hounding me to talk about us.

She wasn’t blowing up my phone.

She wasn’t showing up at my house.

She was just making her presence known.

And I fucking felt it.

Everywhere.

The minutes now dwindling down to the end of her internship.

Once we reached that final hour, I watched her get up from her desk and come into my doorway. One arm raised high as she held on to the frame, the other at her side, clutching a notebook and pen. She’d removed her suit jacket, and her tank was tucked into her skirt, revealing the slimness of her waist and the definition in her arms.

“What can I do for you, Miss Dalton?”

The greeting made her smile.

Fuck, that sight was so gorgeous.

“I just wanted you to know that I gave all my passwords to your assistant in case she needs to access my email or the files I saved, and she knows she can always call me if she can’t find something.”

“You’re really leaving us …”

At the beginning, I’d fucking dreamed of this day. But as the weeks had passed, having Hannah here had turned out to be something better than I’d imagined. Since there was an us, even if things were slightly rocky at the moment, having her on my team probably wasn’t the best scenario, but having her in this building was.

She’d be back once she took the bar, working as a clerk until she passed. Now that our secret was out, I highly doubted she’d be a clerk on my team. Something told me she’d be assigned to Christopher.

Still, that was months away.

Months of not seeing her every day.

Months of her locked in her apartment, doing nothing but studying, bar prepping monopolizing every second of her life.

I knew the process.

It was hell.

And, goddamn it, I was going to miss her.

More than I already did, and she was standing right in front of me.

She took a seat in front of my desk, adjusting those beautiful legs so she didn’t flash me her pussy. “Declan, I have to.”

“I know.”

She didn’t reply.

She didn’t have to.

I saw every thought running through her head.

She wanted to know where we stood.

What the future would look like.

When she would wake up with my arms around her.

“Is there anything I can do before I leave?”

Her voice was eager.

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Sensual even.

I chuckled, pushing my chair back a few feet so I could cross a foot over my thigh. “Don’t ask me that, Hannah. You know what that will lead to.”

A wave of heat passed over her cheeks.

“You know, something I inherited from my childhood is this inability to forgive. I hold grudges. I’m not proud of that fact, but I’m learning-especially as I get older-that it’s something I struggle with. When someone pisses me off in a way that affects me emotionally, I’m done. I close that door, and I don’t look back. That’s why I don’t let anyone get too close to me.”

The flush was leaving her cheeks as her breathing sped up, her skin tone almost turning pale. She was thinking the worst, fearing that I was putting an end to us.

She was in for a big surprise.

“Another thing about me, Hannah, is that I don’t allow people to fight back. I don’t even give them a chance to speak. Their opinion is meaningless to me. When my mind is made up-like it is now-I don’t give a fuck about what they have to say.”

“But you let me speak the other night.”

I nodded. “I did, and I listened to everything you said.” My foot dropped to the floor, and I pulled myself to the edge of the desk. “And I even understood why you hadn’t told me the truth. It doesn’t mean I like it, but given the evidence that you had, I can see how you drew that conclusion.”

She crossed her arms. “Why do I feel like there’s a but?”

“You’re right. There is a but. Because there’s a whole other side to this.” My head dropped, so she couldn’t see my smile. “This brilliant, stunning fucking firecracker came into my life and bulldozed right through every one of my walls.” When I glanced up, her eyes were getting teary. “I don’t know what you did to me, Hannah, but you made me listen to you. You made me search for forgiveness. And that grudge that I always held, you made it fall.”

“Declan …” She wiped the corners of her eyes.

“You fought for me. That’s what you’ve been doing since our argument. Fighting. Nonstop. For me.” I took a breath. “I’ve felt it every day.” I reached across the desk and held out my hand. “I don’t want there to be distance between us. In fact, where you’re sitting now is even too far away.”

A tear dripped down her cheek as she clasped our fingers together and said, “When you love someone, you fight.”

Damn it. I felt that one.

It hit.

And then it hit again.

“With the way men are attracted to you, it looks like I’ll be fighting for the woman I love for the rest of my life.” I clenched my jaw and growled, “Now, go lock my door.”

She laughed.

It was the best sound I’d ever heard.

“You have a meeting in ten minutes, followed by another meeting forty-five minutes later. I’ll be gone before the first one is even over.”

“Cancel both.”

“Ford will gut me if I do that.” She wiped her cheeks, the tears long gone from her eyes. “The first one is with Stephanie Baxter, one of his wealthiest clients. She’s been waiting almost a month to get in with you.”

I thought for a second. “All right, then come to my house tonight.”

“Tonight?” Her eyes widened. “You do know this is the biggest weekend of my life, right? And everyone and their great-aunt is coming into town to celebrate my joint graduation with Camden.”

I squeezed her fingers. “I can’t wait until your graduation party to kiss you.”

Until now, I hadn’t told her I was going.

As the recognition registered, a softness drifted across her face. “You just made it impossible for me to say no.”