Devotion - Billionaire Contemporary Romance Novel by Aria Hawthorne Page A

project.  She assumed every detail would be entrusted into her care—until now.
    “I have a meeting with him first thing Monday morning about my progress.  I don’t want to disappoint him.”  Giselle settled her hands back onto the computer’s keyboard and typed furiously.
    Isabel peered at Giselle.  Phillip despised social media.  It was modern society’s way of valuing instant gratification over strategic calculation.  Isabel noted Giselle’s flowing blonde hair, fresh powdered skin, penciled eyeliner and shiny lip gloss. Even from the doorway, Isabel could almost see down her low-cut blouse, something she regularly dismissed.  But now, she realized how many times all the men in the office—including Phillip—had taken the opportunity to indulge in the view the way Isabel was doing now.  And Giselle was young.  So very young and inexperienced , thought Isabel.  And yet, not much younger than when Isabel first started working for Phillip, and certainly not too young to be professionally groomed and mentored the way Phillip had groomed and mentored her.  Suddenly, a pang of jealousy swept through Isabel’s heart.  It was a ridiculous swell of envy, of course.  Giselle was an intern.  Isabel was Phillip’s senior executive assistant.  But the news that Phillip had reached out to her without Isabel’s consent suggested Phillip was driven to accomplish his goals and priorities at whatever cost necessary—and without Isabel’s exclusive assistance. 
    Isabel forced a smile. “Well, try not to stay too late.  Phillip could let you work all weekend long on his projects if you’re willing to...”
    Her own advice echoed in her ears.  How many times had she given up her weekends or nights to draft last-minute proposals or attend late-night dinner parties?  So many times that Isabel had lost count. 
    “Don’t worry.  I don’t have much else to do anyway this weekend.  I’ll be sure to lock up and set the alarm. Lucy taught me how since I’m usually the first one in every morning.  Good night, Miss Alvarez.”
    Isabel glanced back at Giselle, who resumed her concentration on the screen and clicked away as if Isabel had already left the room.  Not much else to do on a Friday night?   No boyfriend?  No college parties?  No girls’ night out with friends and roommates?   There was only conviction and determination within the fury of Giselle’s typing.  Isabel gazed at her as if she was staring at a former image of herself.
    “Good night, Giselle,” she said slowly and exited Norton’s office, striding through the main glass doors into the reception lobby.  As she waited for the elevators and listened to the dull hum of the elevator cab ascending to the top floor of the building—Phillip’s building—she wondered if all these years she had actually been as naïve and submissive as Giselle seemed to her now.  It was a sobering realization—one that lurked within the deepest part of heart—because she no longer felt the privilege of being irreplaceable and indispensable.  Instead, she felt the sharp reality of sacrificing too much of herself—too much of her entire life—than perhaps was truly necessary.

Chapter Six
     
    It was already nine thirty when Isabel made the spontaneous decision to call a cab and leave her house for the night.  She had spent the entire evening with Aidan and her mother.  They had cooked dinner and eaten together for the first time in weeks.  Despite her mother’s disapproval, Isabel and Aidan constructed an enormous fort across the living furniture with sheets, pillows, and her mother’s favorite quilted blanket, and relocated all of Aidan’s dinosaurs, trucks, airplanes, trains, stuffed animals and even their dessert—strawberries with whipped cream—under the expansive fortress for a night of indoor dragon hunting and flashlight puppet theater. Together, they encouraged Nica to go to bed early while mother and son dragon-slayers stayed up