The Queen's Impossible Boss - Natalie Anderson Page 0,2

suitably ‘Juno office wear’. She figured her black coat covered much anyway, and if she could somehow fix this quickly, she could be out of there before the others arrived for the day.

Finally, at Byrne HQ, in Tribeca, she stared through the gleaming glass to the brightly lit, funky atrium of the repurposed brick-fronted industrial building. She shuffled through Juno’s battered wallet to find the office security card. To her relief the door lock clicked when she swiped it through the security pad. So Juno hadn’t been banned from the building, despite the unreasonable rancour in that man’s tone.

She quickly read the signs and ventured deeper into the quiet building. She shivered again, nerves biting. But she had no choice but to ignore their agreement for her to stay away from Juno’s work. She had to fix it so everything would be well when Juno returned. She knew this job mattered to her sister—she’d shut down the social media sites she’d been running for years because she’d wanted to pull back from that public ‘Rebel Princess’ persona. She’d wanted a normal marketing job for a company and to get some anonymity back. So, more than anything, Jade wanted to help her sister keep it.

Those two minutes that separated them as ‘heir’ and ‘spare’ were merely fate, but Jade hated that Juno had effectively been ejected from the kingdom. She knew her father’s hard-line stance stemmed from a deep, devastated hurt, but that didn’t make it okay. And Jade had been too scared to challenge her father on it. Too scared that if she too hurt him, or let him down in some way as her mother had, then she too would be rejected. She’d tried for years to be the perfect princess daughter. Now she had the chance to be a decent sister.

She took the elevator to the sixth floor, grateful for the clear signs. There was a large open-plan area with several desks in groups, separated by a couple of sofas, and a number of glass-walled offices ran along the side. How was she meant to know which was Juno’s desk? She paused, taking in the personal items on each one in the hope she might find a clue. Then she spotted an enormous hot pink coffee mug with Princess emblazoned on the side. Jade smiled the second she saw it, her amusement bubbling up. That ‘own it’ attitude was pure Juno. She wheeled her cabin bag up to the desk, shrugged out of her coat, hung it on the back of the swivel chair and eyed up the computer. All she needed to do now was get online, get a few messages and emails sent and she’d be out of here.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’

Jade wasn’t listening to that icy but irate phone message now, but there was no mistaking that voice. She instantly swung round, drawing in a breath to reply—but then she choked.

‘Oh.’ She gulped, staggered by the sight before her.

First impression? Skin. Second impression? Muscles. Third? Fury—in the heated tension in his tight stance. All of it up close and personal and towering over her.

Jade suddenly felt as if she were being incinerated from the inside out. Awareness—purely, mortifyingly, sexual—swamped her, frying her brain. He was huge. Like really, really tall and muscular in a way she wasn’t used to.

Of course, she wasn’t used to it.

The man was gleaming and hot—literally. She could almost see the steam rising from his body. Why—why—was his chest bare? Finally—far too late—she dragged her gaze up from his abs and pecs, past his wide shoulders to the tanned column of his neck, his sharp-edged jaw, grim-set mouth and then there, to the blazing anger in his amber eyes.

‘Juno, right?’ he said tightly. ‘You need to leave.’

This wasn’t the setting for so much skin. That was why she was reacting so primally, right? Frankly she wasn’t used to seeing half-naked men, ever. No matter that it was an office situation, not in any situation was she used to this.

‘You’re...’ she trailed off, forced to swallow in an attempt to ease her dry throat.

‘Still wondering why you’re here,’ he snapped.

Couldn’t the same be said for him? It was ridiculously early and what was he doing here barely dressed? Black sports shorts and trainers were all he had on.

Alvaro Byrne.

Tall, dark and wild. Even his hair was a little long and now he swept it out of his eyes with an impatient hand. The already tense muscles in his chest rippled.

‘Why