onged to Dominic just twelve hours ago-now felt like a battlefield covered in silk and shadows. Every inch of the room was a reminder of the man Serafina was currently dismantling. Th

real glow over her features that made her look more like a marble statue than a woman. She had spent the last six hours systematically restructuring the Sinclair board, moving pieces on a digital

eam had escorted him out earlier that day. It hadn't just been anger; it

lick echoed from

man who believed the world should make room for him. She kept her fingers mo

us, clinical coldness. "Which means you either committed a felony to get in here

rt was unbuttoned at the collar, revealing the frantic pulse at the base of his throat. He looked like a man who had spent the last eight hours at the bot

d, his voice a low, gravelly rasp that seemed to suck the oxygen out of the room. "Even the Valkyrie doesn'

llowing the light behind him. The scent of him-expensive cologne cut with the sharp tang of scotch-swirled around her, triggering a landslide of unwanted memor

een a li

was a

ll; she looked bored, as if he were an uninvited guest at a gala he was no longer wealthy enough to atte

in. The force of it made the laptop screen wobble. "You took my company. You took my board. You even took my name off t

p back to avoid a collision. She didn't retreat; she moved into his s

, her voice a razor-thin blade. "When you look in the mirror and realize that the only thing you ever truly h

hummed with a violent, undeniable electricity-the kind that precedes a lightning strike. He reached out,

r head, watching him with the detached curiosity of a s

d a threat. "You can buy every share in this company, Serafina. You can burn my legacy to the ground. But you c

nd sharp. "A ghost of a muscle memory I'm currently training out of my sy

ntimacy they once owned. "Then tell me to stop. Tell me you don't miss the way I used to make you screa

ped-but not beca

t melt into him; she attacked. Dominic crashed his lips against hers, a desperate, hungry kiss that tasted of scotch and years of repressed longing. It wasn't romantic; it

leaving only two people who had been hollowed out by th

ed in her mind. The memory of him laughing

ustered-she looked triumphant. She shoved him back, her eyes narrowing as she watched him s

ngs. "The Great Dominic Sinclair, reduced to using a maintenance key and a desperate kiss just to feel

rustration. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, looking at her with a hunger that no

we're not done. Not by a long shot. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to that hotel. I'm going

els clicking sharply against the marble floor. But Seraf

ember-I own that hotel. I own the security team that guards the perimeter. And by tomorrow morning, I might just have my lawyer

clenching into white-knuckled fists at his sides. He didn't look back. He stepped

She reached out and pulled her laptop back toward her, the blue light reflecting in her co

room, her voice a final, echoing vow. "