Page 3 of A Delicate Conquest

And she was out of a job.

“Hah.”A puff of exasperation escaped her lips.

What the hell hadthatbeen all about?

She could hardly believe it.

Led by a freakinghigh commander, the Kordolians had arrived in the lobby of Garner Tower without any announcement and demanded to see the CEO himself.

As the Head Receptionist, Bea was given no choice but to manage them until an outcome was achieved.

Said outcome ended up being the imminent destruction of the entire Garner Corporation on account of their boss’s arrogance and obstruction. She didn’t understand all the details, but even she had known from the start it wasnota good idea to antagonize Kordolians.

Especiallythose directly connected to the top.

Didn’t Garner understand that he actually had no power here? That the Kordolians parked just outside Earth’s atmosphere owned enough firepower to turn Earth into dust if they wanted?

Evensheknew that, and Bea didn’t tune in to the Networks all that often.

Maybe trillionaires didn’t follow the news at all.

She ran her finger over the textured card, feeling the smooth undulations, marveling that they had produced something with such subtle messaging.

Her good friend Clarissa had received one of these invitations, too. Poor thing, she’d been agonizing over it for thepast few days on account of the fact that the Kordolian general who’d turned up to Garner Tower was actually interested in her.

Thatguy. Armored, ripped, tough, gruff, bald, and overall dangerous-looking.

Hewanted to get involved with her friend, and he wasn’t messing around.

And Clarissa, Garner’sformerPersonal Assistant—always composed, polished, and impeccable, with never a hair out of place or less-than-perfect makeup—had actually seemed interested in the guy.

Andheacted obscenely gentlemanly around her.

Bea closed her eyes and thought back to that wild day. She couldn’t shake off the memory of another Kordolian, a quiet, deceptively mild-mannered male called Mavrel.

In all their interactions, he’d been terribly polite, even though she’d witnessed others catching the pointy end of his remarks.

He could be dry and sarcastic at times, but never to her.

Whenever she’d caught sight of him, a tiny frisson of anticipation would dance through her, even though she tried so hard to convince herself it was just her imagination.

She had a sneaking inkling that the invitation that had landed on her kitchen table—suspiciously, when she was out, when the doors and windows were locked—had something to do with that smooth, sneaky, know-it-all Kordolian.

She hadn’t told Clarissa yet. She probably should, but her friend was already caught up in knots over something that should be so simple, and Bea didn’t want to get in the way of whatever was starting to grow between Clarissa andJerik.

Former High Commander in the Kordolian Imperial Military.

Holy crap.

Ordinarily, there would be thousands of alarm bells ringing, but Clarissa had heard from a friend of a friend about a human woman who’d gotten into a relationship with one of the silver-skinned aliens.

Apparently, the aliens practically worshipped their partners.

So she had done nothing but encourage Clarissa, who was an impenetrable perfectionist with notoriously high standards and no idea of how to navigate romantic relationships—until now.

It would probably take someone like a Kordolian High Commander to crack through her defenses, so Bea let it be.

Now, it was time to focus on herself.