LOGINHer hands moved from my shoulders to my face, her palms cupping my jaw, her thumbs stroking my cheeks. It was a gesture of such unexpected tenderness it nearly undid me. Her eyes, dark and dazed, locked onto mine. In them, I saw not the woman I had wronged, but the woman I was with, in this moment,
Her hand anchored hard against the back of my head, fingers tangling in my hair, holding me exactly where she needed me. For a moment, I wasn't the man who had failed her. I was just a man giving her pleasure. She said my name once, twice, the third time broken completely, and her whole body arched
Edward's POV Her mouth was on mine when I got the door open. I walked her backward into the room, the city lights filtering through the window in thin strips that barely illuminated the space. Her hands were already at my collar, working open the buttons of my shirt with an urgency that sent a jol
Alicia's POV The restaurant Edmund had not arranged. Edward had seen it from the car on the second day and remembered it. No assistant. No agenda attached to the table. We walked there. He asked about Lily before we reached the first corner. "Is she still seeing the cardiologist every three mon
I ordered wine. The work wasn't finished. The room was quieter. She took the glass without comment. Drank. Set it down and kept writing. She spoke about the eastern corridor communities directly, without framing or adjustment, as if they existed in the room with us. Her hand moved as she talked, m
Edward's POV The door opened behind me. No knock. She came in already talking. "I need your numbers from Rotterdam before we fix anything else," she said. "The version you gave him assumes—" She stopped. I didn't turn immediately. Just reached for the towel, dragged it once over my face, then
Edward's POV I sat rigid at the glass table, shoulders locked, the numbers on the screen cutting through the room like steel. Goldman’s conference floor was always cold: marble, chrome, the hum of money moving in currents you couldn’t see. Across from me, Marcus Greene tapped a spreadsheet, each t
Edward's POV I stood in the study doorway. Papers still scattered across the floor. The lamp, back on the shelf, cord dangling. Drawers open. The compartment in the fourth drawer still visible. Still empty. I'd closed the other drawers. Stacked some of the files. But I kept coming back to this o
Alicia's POV I woke up slow, the kind of slow where you can feel the quiet pressing in on you. The guest room still smelled of lavender—Elena's diffuser from last night. This wasn't my room. Hasn't been for weeks now. But it was safe. Right now, that counted for something. My chest didn't feel as
Alicia's POV The office felt quieter today. Not empty. Just softer. The afternoon light coming through the tall windows was hazy, warm without being harsh. I pulled my cardigan tighter. Not because I was cold. Just needed something to hold. Coffee in one hand, I walked past the desks toward my ow







