Mag-log inPOV: DominicSomething in Shelley's expression twisted even further."You're welcome to him. He's useless anyway. Can't do a damn thing right. Wonder why I left? Because the man I left him for actually knows how to please a woman. He's not worth a thing," she said, turning her words directly on me.I winced and went quiet. I suppose if someone tells you the same thing enough times, some part of you starts believing it no matter how untrue it is. Then I saw Ava step in, nose to nose with Shelley."How dare you. He's a good man. You're the one worth nothing. You're a lying, manipulative, cheating, selfish excuse of a human being. And sweetheart, there must be something wrong with you, because trust me, he absolutely knows what he's doing," Ava said, low, almost a purr.I knew she was only saying it to get under Shelley's skin, but I still felt it land somewhere lower than I expected."Maybe you just weren't woman enough for him. Now you've got about two seconds to get out of my face and
POV: Dominic"Come on, you know it's true. I'm way hotter than him," I laughed as the film wrapped up."You are not," Ava giggled.I pouted, folding my arms and turning away in mock offence. She laughed harder at me."Aw, you sulking now, boss?" she asked."Yes," I said, still facing away.I knew my childish routine was entertaining her. It felt good, honestly, spending an evening this easy with a woman, nothing complicated hanging over it for a change. I couldn't stop laughing and smiling the whole time she'd been here.I caught her watching me a moment before I turned back, something quiet and thoughtful in her expression that vanished the second she realised I'd noticed. I wondered, not for the first time that night, exactly what was going on behind those eyes. She'd been like that a lot lately, present one second and somewhere else entirely the next, some heavy thought pulling her away mid-conversation before she caught herself and pulled it back down.My good mood took a hit the
POV: Ava"Sure you don't want a glass of wine?" Dominic asked."Positive. Not after last night," I giggled."One won't hurt. I promise to keep my hands and lips to myself. Scout's honour, and I was an excellent scout," he laughed.One glass couldn't hurt, could it? Whatever had happened last night felt like it had passed, and honestly, that was probably the best thing for both of us."One glass. Not a large one," I laughed.He poured us each a small glass, and we headed into the living room to get through the details we still needed to sort. We had to get this exactly right."Thought it'd be easier this way," he said, handing me a sheet of paper laying out the dos and don'ts for the gala.I laughed the second I saw it, an actual written list, though I shouldn't have been surprised. He's a bit of a control freak about these things. I raised an eyebrow and took it from him."Tell me if you agree or disagree with anything," he said.I scrolled down the list.Some PDA needs to happen to m
CHAPTER THIRTYPOV: Ava"Ava, come on. It doesn't take that long to try a dress on," Dominic laughed.I was in his guest room, trying on the dresses he'd brought. I'm not going to lie, the man has good taste. I loved every single one of them, though the one I currently had on, while I loved it, was a little tight, a little too short for a gala. It was more the kind of dress you'd wear clubbing, not something you'd wear to a formal fundraiser."No. It's too tight for a gala, Dominic. This is more of a clubbing dress," I called out."Ava, don't make me come in there," he said.I groaned, rolled my eyes, and eventually stepped out of the bedroom into the living room, where he was waiting. The second I was in front of him, I caught his eyes trailing over me. The dress showed off my legs, hugged the curve of my hips, made my ass look good, I'm not going to pretend otherwise. The way he was looking at me made me anxious. When his eyes finally met mine, his face had gone slightly flushed, hi
POV: AvaIt was the end of the day, and I couldn't have been more relieved, though not for the reasons I would have expected that morning. The day had been strange for one thing, and unbearable for another. I'd spent most of it unable to look Dominic in the eye, the weight of what I'd done sitting so heavy in my chest that every glance in his direction felt like a confession waiting to slip out.I'd toned down the security I built for him. I'd let Dillan's presentation go through clean. I'd helped a man I was actively trying to destroy walk out of that boardroom looking like a legitimate business partner, and I'd done it without saying a single word to the one person who deserved to know exactly what had walked into his company that day.He hadn't called me into his office all afternoon, holed up instead with Marcus and a couple of men I didn't recognise. Every hour that passed without a word from him convinced me a little further that he already knew, that whatever he'd found while I
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTPOV: AvaAfter Dominic left for his coffee break, I got straight to work, because I already knew what was coming, and I knew exactly how to stop it. I wasn't going to let Dillan, or whoever he was working for, get their hands on Dominic's company.I didn't fully understand yet what they were planning, but I understood enough to know I had to protect Dominic, and this company, from whatever they had in mind.I started reinforcing every layer of security Dominic had, at the office, at his house, everything I could reach remotely. I locked down protocols so tight not even the best hacker in that underground facility could breach them.The prototype could act as a Trojan horse, pulling sensitive documents straight off a company's servers undetected. It could authorise fund transfers, move money invisibly, commit crimes under a completely false digital trail. And I'd just discovered something new buried in the design, something even worse. It could plant fabricated evi







