Chapter One: The Return

Luna was used to men staring at her by now. She was a successful woman in her late twenties, beautiful with- as it’s all men seem to be capable of thinking about- a great body.

So she was used to the stares. She didn’t let it bother her, because in her opinion, the ones who actually have the guts to walk up to her were the real men. If staring was all a man does at a beautiful woman, then he probably didn’t deserve her.

She kept her head high and her gaze focused ahead as she walked into the conference room. There was a long mahogany table in the middle of the spacious room, office chairs lined both sides to the other door at the end of the room. Fluorescent lights shine over the flat surface, making the glass in the middle of the table, glimmer.

Men in suits were seated on both sides of the table, their laptops open in front of them. Some of them were typing on their laptops, while some were idly discussing. They all turn to stare at her as she walked into the room. Idle chatter dies down, open stares were pinned on her.

Again, Luna ignored the stares, she turned to the intern hovering beside her. He was a young fresh-faced kid, just a few months out of college, and jumped slightly every time she spoke to him. He did so again as she turned to him, she ignored it.

“The CEO is not around?” she asked.

“Um, no, um, no, not yet, ma’am,” he stuttered.

As Luna processed the information, a smile threatened to spread over her face.

Oh, Justin, she thought to herself. This was a classic move he used, arriving fashionably late to meetings to assert control. She had studied him while they were together and she had seen how effective the move had been then.

A small smile tipped around Luna’s lips. The intern’s face flushed red, but she didn’t notice as she turned away from him to look back at the room.

“Um, do you want me to, um, place a call to his secretary? Ma’am?” he added.

Luna waves the suggestion away with a careless flick of her wrist.

“No, it’s fine,” she said instead, “we’ll just wait for him. He’s the one who’ll be receiving the shock of his life, after all,” she murmured, adding.

At her words, a feeling of glee ran through Luna’s body. She had worked hard at the surprise she was going to be unfolding today, for months. She had been meticulous in hiding her identity from Justin’s executives all while they’d been discussing the terms of the contract with her own executives. And now today, she was going to reap the fruits of her labor. She was going to enjoy seeing the look on Justin’s face when he walks in and sees her. Oh, she was going to soak in every moment of it.

The smile spreads a little.

“It’s fine,” she said again, absently to the flushed intern, “we’ll just wait for him.”

As she walked over to the first vacant seat to her right, the intern rushed forward to pull out the chair for her.

“Thank you, Jaden,” she said as she took her seat.

She heard the intern suck in a breath beside her. Did he think she didn’t know his name? Luna’s lips tip wryly as she thought about it. There was no one working for her she didn’t know. She might not know each and every one of their history, or family, or life, but she at least knew their name.

By now, some of the executives seated around the conference table had stopped staring at her, the idle chatter had picked up again, but there were still some staring and giving her the side eye.

It really was easy to ignore them, Luna thought to herself, because she knew the real battle she had come to fight today wasn’t some random men stares. It was Justin Lucius.

Justin, tall, dark, handsome and dangerous as sin. And her ex-husband.

That was the real battle she came to fight today. Seeing him for the first time in six years was bound to wreak havoc on her entire system. She knew that, and she hoped she was mentally prepared for it.

Justin wasn’t the only one who was going to be experiencing a whole range of emotions in the meeting today, the only difference was that she knew what was coming.

Luna took a deep breath as the seconds ticked on. She resisted the urge to check the time, she knew it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds since she had sat down. It only felt like hours because of the anticipation thrumming through her.

Just then, the door to the conference room opened behind her. The men, who had been staring at her before, all turned their head towards the door. Luna could feel the change in the air, like a higher presence than a human being was entering the room. That was the effect Justin had on people, he exuded command and dominance like a regular man exuded cologne.

Luna found she couldn’t turn her head to look at the door, a tingling sensation was running through the tips of her fingers and her heat was hammering so loudly against her chest it felt like-

“Mr. Lucius is on his way,” a voice said from the doorway.

Luna’s head snapped toward the entrance. She stared hard at the man standing at the threshold like he had two heads. That’s not Justin, she thought to herself.

Her heart pounded hard against her chest as she realized what just happened. It wasn’t Justin that had come in, it was just some random executive announcing Justin. Just the thought of Justin had made her freeze up like that! What would happen when he finally came in? Could she handle it? Could she keep-

And then Justin stepped to the doorway like a figment of her worst fear.