I froze in front of eleven board members. I thought my corporate career was ending in real time.
Instead, the most intimidating CEO in Manhattan called me into his office.
James Holt is six-foot-four, silver-templed, and cold enough to freeze a boardroom. He's eighteen years my senior, completely off-limits, and holds my entire future at Holt Group in his hands.
I expected a severance package. What I got was fifteen minutes of the most precise, intoxicating praise I'd ever heard in my life.
James didn't just read my financial modeling—he memorized it. He noticed every detail. And when his gray eyes tracked the frantic pulse hammering in my throat, I realized two things very quickly: James Holt pays meticulous attention, and my body responds to his baritone voice like a controlled substance.
When a lateral transfer removes me from his direct reporting line, the ethical boundaries shift. What starts as after-hours feedback in a dark office turns into secret midnight encounters, high-stakes corporate games, and a dynamic that takes me apart syllable by syllable.
He demands perfection in the boardroom and complete surrender behind closed doors. But as corporate rivals circle and an anonymous scandal threatens to tear us apart, James has to make a choice:
Keep me as his best-kept secret... or prove to the world that I'm the only risk worth taking.
EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS is a high-heat, standalone MM workplace romance featuring a stern CEO silver fox, a brilliant analyst with a major praise kink, an 18-year age gap, intense power dynamics, corporate intrigue, and a guaranteed happily ever after.
