Chapter 5

My coffee burned hot as I sat in my seat. The Carter twins had bought my company off the previous day and I had immediately clocked out of work early.

Pretending to be sick was easier than staying.

I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t have screamed if I had stayed.

My desk was full of the unfinished documents I had been interrupted from, and I spent the next 20 minutes obsessively rearranging my desk, trying to convince myself that I had hallucinated the whole of yesterday.

It wasn’t like I expected it to work, I had spent the whole night thinking about it, about them.

Was I being too vain? Or arrogant?

It seemed unfathomable that they would actually spend 2 billion dollars on a company that was worth just 700 million dollars. It seemed even more unfathomable that they would spend all that money to trap me.

It seemed more likely that there was a larger power play at work, and I was just the side project. I hoped that was it. I didn’t want to go through everything I went through in that dinner ever again, that sort of unnatural twin rivalry was meant to be far away from my workplace.

I chucked down the bitter, now cold, coffee the moment I was done, determined to forget about the Carter twins’ rivalry. I was a managing director before I was the woman they were treating like an object.

The large pile of files on my desk diminished quickly, the spite I felt served as the fuel that made my hands move like the wind.

There was a knock on my door.

“Come in.”

Madeline entered.

“Ms. Perez… the New Management isn’t waiting for the transition period. They’re in the building. Now…,” Madeline said, a small blush on her cheeks.

My eyes narrowed.

Those Carters sure knew how to play.

They were meant to wait, meant to acclimatize with the environment through meetings with the former major shareholders, they were not meant to resume immediately.

“Wonderful, it’s high time we had competent men here. Thank you for informing me, Madeline,” I said, hoping she’d leave, hoping beyond everything that they DIDN’T ask her to call for me.

“…um, Ms. Perez, they asked to see the M.D,” Madeline said, standing steadfastly at my door.

Ugh.

I had to see them.

I couldn’t avoid them.

It wasn’t exactly like I wanted to avoid them. No, I just wanted to avoid Killian.

Kade was my savior, the man in my heart. Killian was his twin I’d wrongly given myself to, and Killian seemed to love making things more complicated.

“I’ll be there.”

“Mr. Killian is in the litigation lobby,” Madeline said, finally leaving.

The lobby? Why wasn’t he in the CEO’s office?

I walked out and stopped at the edge of the carpeted common area for the litigation lobby, my fingers curling into my palms. Killian wasn't sitting in the plush designer chairs reserved for high-end clients, or brand new CEOS.

No, he was leaning against the cubicle of a junior associate whose name was definitely Linda, his expensive suit jacket unbuttoned, radiating a casual, dangerous heat that I could feel in a phantom way.

He was laughing at something she said and I immediately knew why Madeline had been slightly blushing when she had opened the door before. Killian was an incorrigible flirt.

He looked like he was paying her maximum attention, but his eyes were roaming, searching really, till they locked onto mine.

"Mia," he called out. He didn't use my title. He didn't even use a professional tone. He said my name with the lazy, intimate familiarity of a man who had seen me with my hair spread across a hotel pillow. I grit my teeth automatically.

There was nothing I disliked more than not being respected at work. Personal problems were personal, and work was work. I liked to keep it separate.

"You look recovered. That 'fever' must have broken quickly."

I felt the heat crawl up my neck. He knew I was simply trying to avoid him. "Mr. Carter," I said, my voice as cold as the coffee l'd just finished. "If you're looking for the tour, Madeline would be happy to-"

"I don't need a tour of the walls, Mia. I'm interested in the culture of this lovely environment." He straightened up, winking at Linda before walking toward me, his stride predatory.

He stopped just an inch too close and I stepped back, not willing to let his scent cloud my judgment. He leaned down, his voice dropping to a low, suggestive vibrato. "I wanted you at breakfast yesterday. We have so much left to... discuss."

A collective gasp seemed to ripple through the cubicles.

He was marking his territory in front of my subordinates, nearly stripping me of five years of hard-earned authority with a single sentence. How was I supposed to prove I became an M.D through my own hard work clawing up the corporate ladder if the new CEO alluded to knowing me so intimately?

I opened my mouth to tear into him, to remind him that this was a place of business, not a playground for his stupid vendettas, but the air in the room suddenly shifted.

The automatic glass doors slid open with a hiss.

If Killian was like the heat of a fire, Kade was the absolute zero temperature of space. I didn’t know why it didn’t occur to me at first.

My savior was protective, gentle, and slightly cold. From the moment I met Killian he was all passion and flame.

Kade stepped into the lobby, and the ambiguous atmosphere that Killian was building died. He wore a charcoal suit, his face an unmoving mask.

He didn't look at the staff. He didn’t look at his brother. He looked at me.

"Killian," Kade said, his voice a low rasp that made the hair on my arms stand up. "This is hardly a quality meeting spot."

Killian's smirk didn't falter, but his eyes sharpened, boring holes into his brother.

"I'm just getting to know the staff in their natural environment, brother. They’re exceptionally talented people."

Kade ignored him entirely, stepping into my space and effectively crowding Killian out.

"I spent the night reviewing your litigation strategy for the Henderson merger, Ms. Perez," Kade said. His intensity was a physical weight, pulling me in without even trying.

He wasn't talking about breakfast or hotel rooms, he was talking about my mind. It wasn’t hard to know who my favorite Carter was. “Your use of the force majeure clause was aggressive. I like it."

I stared at him, momentarily stunned. He'd actually read my briefs? While Killian had been busy plotting how to humiliate me as some sort of punishment for ignoring him, Kade had been studying my work.

It was a different kind of violation, it got under my skin in a very different way.

"I appreciate the feedback, Mr. Carter," I managed to say, trying to reclaim some shred of my professional mask. "Now, if you both would follow me to the executive suite-"

"No," Kade interrupted, his eyes tracking the way my pulse jumped in my throat. "Killian and I have decided to relocate our primary offices to this floor. Directly across from yours."

My heart did a slow, painful somersault. "This is the litigation floor. It's loud, it's cramped-"

"It's perfect," Killian chimed in, interrupting me and stepping back to my other side.

I was flanked on both sides.

The man who had stolen my body on my right, and the man who had saved my life, and now owned my career on my left.

"Shall we?" Killian asked, gesturing toward the long glass hallway that led to my office.

I swallowed.