Rhysand Nox, was not a man who normally found himself involving himself with common interviews for his company Nox Industries. As the CEO of the most powerful company in Prythian he was normally swamped with a thousand things he needed to do. He really needed an assistant, or an army of them, but he needed to trust his assistant completely and so far the only people he trusted were already in their perfect positions.

His second in command, a petite and terrifying woman named Amren, ran his legal department. His third in command, his cousin Morrigan, ran his human resources department but also oversaw his Board of Directors. His adoptive brothers Cassian and Azriel ran his security and his intelligence departments respectively. While they were more than willing to help where they could, they had their own duties to attend to, so he made due without an assistant.

But on his way up from the lobby to see his cousin, Mor, he had found himself sharing an elevator with a beautiful creature. The young woman had golden brown hair that she had braided back to show beautifully sharp cheekbones, full lips, a perfectly straight nose, and a pointed chin. She kept her blue-gray eyes down on the floor of the elevator though he caught her glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. Her clothes spoke volumes on their own. The pale blue blouse was worn thin and in a basic style that wasn't popular in current fashion and hadn't been for half a decade. Her pencil skirt was a faded black and he could see where it had been patched. Her shoes were flats that were worn down to the point they would likely fall apart soon. She wasn't one of the rich university students storming in to demand an interview with the most ruthless company. Here was someone likely desperately in need of a job.

Rhys adjusted the black lapels of his suit jacket and turned to smile at her. "Are you here to meet with Morrigan Gold?" He asked.
"Yes," came the short, too quiet reply. He knew enough off of that one word. She was beaten down, expecting not to get a job. Likely she wasn't qualified. He could almost feel the heaviness that had settled over her.

"What are you applying for?" He reached for the resume in her hands and she gave it over. Feyre Archeron was listed at the top. A quick perusal of the words typed out in front of him told him she hadn't finished high school, in fact she had barely started it. She had been working full time positions since she had been fourteen. A grocery store where she stocked shelves, a position at a meat packaging facility, and a stint as a waitress that had ended well over a year before and nothing since. Her resume was littered with wrong words and grammatical errors that showed she relied heavily on the suggestions of the word processor she had used.

"I heard there was an opening for janitorial staff here," she folded her hands in front of her.

Rhys almost shook his head. The idea of her scrubbing toilets or vacuuming offices at the end of the night didn't appeal to him at all. It was likely all she was technically qualified for but he didn't like the idea of sending her off to do it. Something told him it was a waste of talent.

"I'm on my way to see Miss Gold now, do you mind if I accompany you?" He asked as the elevator doors opened and as he handed her resume back. She gave a vague nod as she took her resume and followed him out into the hallway. She didn't speak as he led her to the waiting area outside of Mor's office. After waving her into a chair, he stepped into Mor's office without bothering to knock.

"Oh, Rhys, I have an interview on her way up," Mor turned to him. "Can it wait?"

"I was on my way up to chat with you already but I ran into your interview on the elevator. Would it be alright if I joined in?"

"You've never been interested in these sorts of things before," she raised a sculpted eyebrow at him.

"This one has intrigued me," he admitted. "I promise I'll stay out of the way."

"You won't," she snorted. "But we need to find somewhere else to have it. There's not enough room in here for the three of us to meet properly." She waved at her rather large office. There was plenty of room but most of the surfaces, including the chairs were covered in clutter.

"We can use the conference room by my office," Rhys offered.

"Fine. Let's go." Mor led the way out to the waiting area where she greeted Feyre with a bright smile and a warm handshake. "We're actually going to head upstairs to a conference room for your interview. So if you'll just follow me." She breezed past the elevator they had come up on and went to one placed along the back wall. Inside Mor produced her ID card and swiped it through a scanner to make the elevator instantly start moving. Feyre watched it all, questions filling her eyes, but she asked none of them.

At the top, the doors opened and Rhys led the way out into the waiting area outside of his office. There was no receptionist or desk in front of his door. Only a gold plaque on the door listing his name and title. The waiting area held uncomfortable wood chairs and a water cooler. The conference room was closed in with high, thick wood paneled walls. The majority of the room was overtaken with a large mahogany conference table surrounded by the most expensive brown leather executive chairs.

"Have a seat," Mor pointed to a chair while she sat in one across from Feyre and Rhys found another. Both of them noticed Feyre hesitate before sitting down. "Now, let's talk."

Feyre answered every question with quiet, short answers that were overly polite. Yet Rhys could sense there had once been a fire in the woman. One he wanted to spark again and play with. One he was sure would burn him and yet he didn't mind.

"Tell me what caused you to drop out of high school your freshman year," Rhys broke into the conversation between Mor's scripted questions and Feyre's equally scripted replies. He wanted something that wasn't a robotic response from her. He wanted to hear her mind and know how it worked. He wanted to hear some spark of her personality.

"My family fell on hard times. I never did well in school and we needed an income to pay bills, so I started working instead," she told him.

Rhys nodded in response. Already he had pieced together that she likely had a learning disability, likely related to reading and writing by how her resume had been written. Depending on where she had gone to school, it was possible they hadn't had the resources to recognize the disability or help her cope. It wasn't a deal breaker in the least. They could easily work around a learning disability. The fact she had gone to support her family told him she was a hard and dedicated worker. That was something they could always use more of. With his question answered, he sat back and let Mor continue the interview.
Toward the end of Mor's listed questions, the door opened and Rhys frowned at his adoptive brothers as they settled themselves on either side of him in chairs. Azriel produced a folder and set it in front of himself.

"What's this?" Mor demanded.

"Miss Archeron," Azriel turned to Feyre with no explanation. "Are you here to spy for Spring Corp?"

Rhys let his eyes flick to the woman. She was paling quickly and her eyes were widening. He swallowed a growl. That fire he had thought was smothered in her was likely some sort of persona she used to make herself look harmless while she wheedled information out of everyone to report back to a handler.

"No, I am not a spy. Please, I'm just here for a janitorial job," she pressed.

"There is a yearlong gap on your resume starting just over a year ago," Azriel nodded to the paper in Mor's hands. "Perhaps you'd like to tell us about your internship with Tamlin Greene."
Feyre froze in place. Shame colored her features as she looked down at her lap and every instinct told Rhys they were dead wrong. She wasn't a spy and she likely had left it off of her resume for a reason.

"Leave us a moment," Rhys ordered to his family.

Azriel gave him an alarmed look at the order but stood when Mor did. Cassian held for a moment longer before he also left and closed the door behind him, leaving Rhys alone with Feyre. Rhys waited a moment before he walked to the water cooler, produced a cup of water, and walked it over to set in front of Feyre. Then he sat down next to her.

"Tell me about your internship at Spring Corp. Why leave it off of your resume if you aren't a spy?" He kept his chair turned towards her, hoping he was showing he was open to listening to her.

"Mr. Greene found me waitressing in a diner and offered me a position on the spot because I got his coffee right." She blushed. "He called it an internship but mostly I fetched his coffee and ran his errands." She reached out the clutch the cup of water.

"There's more, isn't there," Rhys pressed.

He knew Tamlin. They had been friends long ago even though their businesses were rivals. They had been friends until Rhys' father had taken a large contract from Tamlin's father. Tamlin's father had gotten drunk at dinner with his family and had driven around until he had found Rhys's family enjoying a dinner together. Having his family in the car hadn't stopped him as he had driven full force into the side of the restaurant straight into the table that had held Rhys' mother, father, and sister. His mother and sister had died instantly. His father had died later in the hospital. Tamlin's family had all been killed on impact. They only reason Tamlin and Rhys had survived was they had been at a university function together. It had strained their friendship but Rhys had recognized that Tamlin wasn't much like his father. Then at the funeral for his family, Tamlin had come in and had served Rhys with a lawsuit claiming the death of his family was Nox Industries fault and they owed an outrageous sum. The bitter lawsuit didn't stand once evidence was given by the police, the restaurant, and bystanders and neither did the friendship Rhys had once had with Tamlin.

Tamlin had since become a man Rhys never would have been friends with. He was bitter about running the company he never wanted and he treated his friends and employees more like servants than people. Only a select few put up with him for long.

"The internship paid too damn well, I knew it did," Feyre's voice broke him from his thoughts. "I should have known better."

"What happened?" Rhys tried to keep his voice even and reasonable.

"It started as small flirtations and I wasn't open to it at first but eventually I let him start to buy me things. I let him kiss me and it felt nice. When he wasn't talking business, he wasn't a bad person. Then the more physical things started. It became things like I bring him his coffee and then I let him have me on his desk. I'd bring in lunch and give him a blow job. Whenever he was stressed he'd call me in and have me close the door." She blushed. "I thought I loved him."

"What next?" Rhys pressed.

"Some business deal went bad. I don't know much about it but it put him in a foul mood. I brought his coffee the next morning and the café had messed it up. He was mad I hadn't checked and bent me over his desk, rolled up my skirt, and used his belt to punish me for being careless." Her cheeks turned red. "He apologized later and took me to dinner, bought me diamond earrings. He claimed he was under too much pressure and I had angered him. It was my job to lessen his stress so I needed to be more careful." Her cheeks kept burning. "But the more business seemed to be going bad, the more he picked up on my faults. I wasn't wearing the right colors. He didn't want me wearing nylons with my skirts. I was talking to other staff too much. Eventually he secluded me in his office and I couldn't leave until he did. He would pick me up at home in the mornings and then drive me home late at night. I was in company housing so he had the place watched. He got mad if I went out after being dropped off. I wasn't able to handle whatever he was doing to me so I told him he couldn't keep me like a prisoner in his office. He lost it and threw me against his bookcase. He was immediately apologetic, but it was too little too late. I accepted his apology and claimed I needed to use the bathroom to fix myself up, then I went to human resources to turn in my notice that I was quitting immediately."

"So that was that," Rhys sat back in his chair. Tamlin was an asshole, that much he knew, but to treat someone like that was a new low.

"He showed up at my apartment that night as I was gathering up my personal belongings. The human resources lady, Ianthe Priest, she went to Tamlin and told him I had quit. He was drunk and mad. He struck me, broke my wrist, and tried to lock me in the apartment. When he left, the apartment manager came and let me out. I had enough to get an apartment of my own well away from that area and I've been looking for work since, but I'm unqualified." Feyre looked up at him then and he knew she had told the truth. He also knew exactly what he was going to do.

"I am going to offer you a job," he kept his voice quiet. "I need a personal assistant. You've already done a bit of the work. Fetching coffee and ordering lunch will be part of it. But you'll also prepare the conference room for meetings, answer the phone when someone calls up here, greet those coming up for meetings and alert me when everything is ready for me." He studied the skeptical look on her face. "I do not expect anything from you physically. I may flirt, but I will never force you. Tell me to fuck off all you like. If a business deal goes bad and I am mad, I will not take it out on you. I take it out on Cassian, that hulking brute that decided to sit by the door. You won't be trapped in my office. You'll have your own desk in the sitting area which you are welcome to leave as needed. The job is a standard 8am to 5pm job with a lunch break, Monday through Friday. You may be asked to attend business events on weekends but you will know in advance. It is a salaried job and pays 100,000 marks a year."

Feyre's eyes went wide and her mouth popped open slightly at the amount. It was a large amount to pay someone for that sort of work and certainly someone very underqualified on paper. He could see the thoughts running through her head about the amount nod adding up to the work.

"This job requires a lot of confidentiality. You'll be privy to things I let few others hear. You'll have control of things that put my company at risk. The job pays well, because it is a lot to expect of one person," he informed her. "And it pays well because I can afford to pay my employees well." He took her hand. "Go home, think it over. If you agree, we will need to do something about your clothes."

A blush crept over her cheeks as she looked herself over. "I know, they aren't very attractive. Tamlin always wanted me in skirt that were above the knee and light-colored blouses."

"I don't care if you wear a skirt or pants, or what color blouse you want to wear. But you'll need a new wardrobe. There is an image we maintain here at Nox Industries to the public and as my personal assistant, you'll need to look the part." He stood. "Here's my personal business card, the number on it rings right to my office. Call me when you make your decision, Miss Archeron." He shook her hand as he handed the card over and it was hard to ignore the spark of electricity he felt move between them at the touch. He was almost to the door when Feyre's voice stopped him.

"I'd like the position," she announced. Her voice sounded stronger and she looked confident in the decision when he turned to look at her. Good. He could use that sort of decisiveness.

"Then you will start on Monday morning. I'll have Mor get your orientation packet together. Welcome to Nox Industries, Feyre." He made himself leave the room and walk to his office passing his family on the way. They followed straight into his office as he closed the door and went to stare out the windows over the city below them.

"So, no escort out for the spy?" Cassian asked.

"The Tool hired her and groomed her to be his personal office fuck toy. Made her think she loved him while he started controlling her every move," Rhys spoke. He wanted to scream and rage and hunt Tamlin down. How dare he hurt that girl? How dare he treat her that way? How dare he not let her go when she had had enough? Instead he turned to his family. "I offered her a job. She will be my personal assistant. I've been in need of one for some time."

"I assume you discussed terms?" Mor asked.

"Yes. I'll write them down for you. She'll start Monday," he looked around his office.

The mahogany desk was the same one his father had inherited when he had taken over from his father. It was twin to the one in Tamlin's office in Spring Corp. The most expensive one that could be bought at the time when the major industries and companies were being built up in Prythian. Somewhere along the line Nox Industries and Spring Corp had been partners and the executive offices were nearly identical.

"I think it's time I redecorate this floor to look more… modern," he stated with a pointed look at Mor. She had been after him to redecorate for some time and loved to shop and decorate. "And I'd like it done before Feyre starts on Monday."

A/N: I posted this originally on AO3. I have added this story in its entirety here. I welcome all comments/favorites/follows and PMs. And in case it needs saying, I am not Sarah J Maas.