The Double Life of My Hot Secretary novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: After the Vote

"No," I said again, so no one could think they'd misheard.

The oldest director kept her hand out for a moment and then lowered it, smiling.

"May I ask why?"

"Because I spent three years taking money from a Draycott." My voice was steadier now. "I'm not going to take a salary from one and call it a fresh start."

"The company is yours to work for. Not his."

"It isn't about the company." I glanced at Vaughn. "I need to be somewhere I chose, not somewhere I owe."

Nobody in the room said a word.

The small woman nodded slowly.

"Then the offer stays open," she said. "It will not expire."

She turned to the table and called the meeting closed.

The directors filed out.

Several of them stopped in front of me, the heavy man first.

They said something quiet and awkward that I did not hear.

When the room had emptied, I stood with my back to the glass and let my knees shake.

Vaughn was beside the laptop with his hands in his pockets.

"That was a lot of money you just turned down," he said.

"I know."

"I've never seen anyone refuse the board."

"I'm sure you'd have done it first, if you'd thought of it."

He almost laughed.

Then he took his hand out of his pocket and held it out to me, palm open, across the width of the table.

"Vaughn Draycott," he said. "I'm the chief executive of a company that has just thrown out its chairman. I'm told I'm very difficult."

I looked at the hand.

On my first day, a twenty-three-year-old with a cheap blazer had held hers out in just that way.

He remembered. I could see it in his face.

I took his hand and shook it.

"Tara Kilgallon," I said. "I do not work for you."

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