She was almost impressed by how quickly her boss managed to lock all his emotions behind a professional mask.

“No. Just a few things on my mind. It will pass. To be honest, I haven’t been sleeping very well, and I think I might take the next hour for myself. Maybe I’ll take a short nap.”

“In your office? Do you need anything?” she asked, now surprised herself.

“Actually, reschedule this afternoon’s meeting for Monday first thing in the morning.” Narrowing his eyes slightly, he nodded. “Thank you, Johari.”

The surprise was still written all over her face as she watched her boss walk stiffly back into his office. Since when did her boss, a workaholic who barely knew the meaning of a good, proper night’s sleep, take naps in the middle of the day? The very idea was even more worrying than knowing that something was bothering him. One thing was being upset about something, but to pair that with such unusual exhaustion? And yes, she knew her boss didn’t sleep well. She knew it from Francis, his older brother, who had once told her to subtly encourage her boss to rest and delegate some of his work. Something she had yet to accomplish.

“Kitty, I’m worried about him,” she murmured, looking at the plush toy.

Adjusting the schedule to postpone a meeting wasn’t a big inconvenience. She had done it many times before. She called Laura, CEO Smitch’s assistant, and apologized for bothering her at the last minute. Laura was kind and understanding and told her not to worry, and together they rescheduled the meeting for Monday at eleven in the morning. She felt relieved knowing there would be no issue with CEO Smitch over postponing the meeting. However, that sense of calm also meant she now had space to reflect on what might be happening with her boss. At some point, she thought she shouldn’t worry too much. After all, everyone had their low days, and sometimes those days lasted longer than just one. And it wasn’t as if her boss were a young man either. So it could be that he was dealing with something… or simply slowing down.

“No, no, no. Not that. He isn’t sick or anything,” she muttered to herself.

Right. Of course, her boss wasn’t getting any younger, but a person didn’t begin to fall apart overnight. If that were the case, she would have noticed the signs long ago. Besides, considering that she herself had seen the results of her boss’s medical exams when they arrived at the office by mail, she could say with absolute certainty that the man was in excellent health. And yes, she knew him to that extent. Still, those were superficial things. Medical reports didn’t tell her what she truly wanted to know.

“All right. Nothing serious is going on. He’s not sick. Now, Johari, focus on your actual work,” she grumbled, scolding herself.

Her real work ended up being reviewing the email inbox. If there was one thing she could always handle in her day, it was purging spam emails. She was usually responsible for both her own inbox and her boss’s. And realistically speaking, spam could pile up quickly if it wasn’t deleted. Most of the time, however, it meant dealing with hundreds of messages in each inbox that she had to review and decide whether to delete, save, or flag for later consideration.

Doing this task helped her focus her mind, pushing aside thoughts that wouldn’t lead her anywhere. Her own inbox was first on the list, and she felt dismayed when she found hundreds of messages waiting. Most of the time, all it took was a brief glance at each one before she could decide whether to delete it, but some needed to be read in full before making a decision. The task took nearly an hour, keeping her thoughts safely away from her worries.

“Well, Kitty, I think I deserve a cup of coffee.” She stood up and walked around the desk. “I’ll be right back.”

Five minutes later, she returned to her seat with a steaming, hot cup of delicious espresso.

She sipped it slowly while staring at her computer screen. There was still her boss’s inbox left to review.

Sighing and casting a quick glance at Kitty, she focused on all the work that still lay ahead.

When she opened the first message, she examined its contents before deciding it wasn’t necessary. She was about to send it to the trash when she froze, realizing there was already something in the folder. Honestly, it didn’t matter whether she or her boss read it, but she was always the one who made the decision to delete emails. Her boss had given her extraordinary access, which meant reading every message and deciding what to keep and what to discard, if only because there could be something in those emails that she might need later. The truth was, she hadn’t deleted any previous messages, which was why she was so surprised to realize that her boss had deleted one himself.

“God, he could have deleted something important,” she murmured as she opened the folder.

She narrowed her eyes when she read the subject line: “You wouldn’t want people to see this, would you? It wouldn’t be good for you.”

There was an attachment, a video file. Her heart began to pound as she hovered the cursor over the link, debating what she should do. On one hand, it clearly was not meant for her eyes. On the other, there was obviously something very wrong with this message, and she was not sure she could simply ignore it when it seemed that someone was threatening her boss. She could not allow such an atrocity.

She clicked.

The program took a few seconds to d******d the file, and then a one-and-a-half-minute video appeared in the built-in player. She pressed the play button…

Everything around her ceased to matter as she stared, stunned, at her computer screen while the video played. The first few seconds were filmed from the perspective of someone lying on their back. In the background, a bedroom could be seen, with the clutter of a pair of pants tossed over a desk chair, a laptop, and a wardrobe. Far more striking was the man, completely naked, standing at the center of the frame… It was her boss, CEO Tanner.

The camera remained focused low enough for her to see that it certainly did not appear that all the salt in her boss’s hair had failed to travel south. In the midst of the total shock of what she was witnessing, a part of her brain could not help but think that her handsome boss was in remarkably good shape for someone closer to fifty than forty. In the sunlight coming from somewhere behind the camera, she could see nearly every detail of his body from the waist up. His body was still taut with muscle, even if it lacked the sharp definition of a younger man. His tanned skin, free of body hair, stretched from his chest down to his flat stomach. His arms looked even more impressive without his usual three-piece suit and, God help her, her breathing hitched as she watched the muscles move and flex.

She had never been more grateful that she had muted her computer’s sound long ago, after growing irritated with the constant email alert chimes. And then, in the video, she saw her boss lean forward, a wicked smile on his face, as his hands moved over the large breasts of the person filming. She did not need the camera to tilt downward to show the filmmaker’s open legs, a sinful invitation for her boss.

She remained seated and frozen, caught between complete shock and a growing sense of arousal as the video continued to play until the end. She watched as her boss, a man for whom she had harbored a quiet attraction for nearly a year and a half, moved down the filmmaker’s body. Light kisses were placed on the woman’s breasts, trailing down her abdomen until they disappeared between her open legs. The camera shook slightly as her boss’s mouth continued to scatter kisses over the woman’s most intimate area, taking his time to arouse her far more than she already was. The video ended with her boss’s satisfied face filling the frame. Of all the expressions she had ever seen on her boss’s face, she had never seen pure excitement before. Lust practically radiated from the man’s sky-blue eyes as they remained locked on the screen. And even though it was not meant for her, she could not help but feel the effect of that expression…