The building felt different after that night. It wasn’t the walls or the offices that changed. It was the way the air wrapped around her whenever he walked by. The way every sound seemed louder when his voice cut through a room. The way her body remembered.
Maya tried to bury what happened. She avoided his gaze during meetings. She arrived late and left early. She pretended that the heat pooling low in her stomach whenever she heard his voice was something she could ignore.
But he didn’t ignore anything.
He started scheduling late meetings. Just the two of them. Subtle, careful, calculated. Every step of it built a cage she didn’t even notice closing around her.
On the third night that week, she found herself outside his office again. Her hands were sweating. She hated that her heartbe
