로그인Lauren’s POV The penthouse felt smaller every day.Or maybe Julian just took up more space.I stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching Seattle, and felt him before I heard him. That was the thing about Julian Cross—you didn't need to see him coming. Your body just knew."You've been standing there for twenty minutes."I didn't turn around. "Didn't realize I now needed your permission to look out a window."His footsteps were slow and deliberate. He stopped close enough that his reflection appeared in the glass beside mine—dark eyes, jaw set, watching me watch the city."You didn't sleep last night," he said."Neither did you.""I was working.""So was I." I finally turned, and that was a mistake, because he was closer than I'd calculated. His hand came up immediately, two fingers hooking under my chin, tilting my face toward himself."You look like hell," he said. But his voice was soft when he said it. That was the dangerous version.I pulled my chin back. "Thank you. Really
Lauren’s POV The coffee shop Silas had picked was the kind of place nobody looked twice at.No marble countertops. No overpriced lattes with foam art. Just scuffed stools, a counter that had seen better years, and a cashier who looked like she was still half asleep. The kind of place I would have killed for on a twelve-hour poker shift, back when surviving meant showing up and not showing weakness.He was already there when I walked in, tucked into the farthest booth, back to the wall. Old habit. Smart habit. I knew it because I had the same one.I slid in across from him without a greeting."You're late," he said."Julian asked where I was going." I pulled off my coat and dropped it beside me. "Had to spend ten minutes convincing him I wanted air, not an escape route."Silas's jaw tightened slightly. He wrapped both hands around his mug and said nothing.That was the thing about him. He never pushed. Never pried. He just waited, and somehow that was worse, because it gave me nowhere
Lauren’s POV Silas's plan still sat in my chest like a splinter I couldn't reach.I'd told him no. Clean, flat and final. I had watched his jaw tighten and his eyes go carefully neutral, the way they did when he was absorbing something that hurt but refused to show it. He hadn't pushed. He never pushed. That was the thing about Silas—he laid his cards on the table and then stepped back and let you decide what to do with them.Julian never stepped back.Julian leaned in until you couldn't breathe.I was thinking about that as I sat across from him at dinner, watching him cut into his steak with the kind of controlled precision that reminded me he did everything with that same terrifying exactness. The dining room was quiet. The soft lighting, the crystal glasses. All the trappings of a life I had no business pretending to belong to."You're quiet tonight," Julian said, not looking up."I'm always quiet at dinner.""No." He lifted his eyes to mine. "You're usually bracing for a fight.
Lauren’s POV The gala was Julian's idea of a leash.Three hours of champagne flutes and designer smiles and men who looked at me like they were calculating what I was worth. Julian stayed close the entire night—hand at my back, lips near my ear, voice low enough that only I could catch the threat wrapped inside every compliment he paid me in front of his associates. *You look stunning tonight, Serena.* Translation: *Don't embarrass me.* *Stay close.* Translation: *I see every move you make.*I played the part. Smiled when I was supposed to. Laughed at the right moments. Touched his arm like I meant it.I was exhausted by the time we stepped outside into the cold Seattle night.The rain had started while we were inside—the kind that doesn't come down hard, just exists, a grey steady presence that soaks through everything eventually. Valets were scrambling and Julian's driver was pulling the car around. I stood under the shade with my arms crossed, wishing I could rip off Serena's heel
Lauren’s POV The walk back from Silas's apartment took forty minutes.I didn't take a car. I needed the cold air, the noise of the city, the grind of Seattle traffic to drown out the thing still sitting heavy in my chest. The thing his confession had put there.'I saw you that day.'Not Serena. Me.I pulled my coat tighter and kept moving.---By the time I slipped back into the penthouse, it was past midnight. Julian was in the study. I could see the light bleeding under the door, hear the low murmur of a phone call. I moved quietly through the corridor, muscle memory from years of not being heard carrying me past his door without a sound.In the bedroom, I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at nothing.Silas had said it without flinching. Steady voice, steady eyes, like confessing something that had been sitting in him for a long time and had finally gotten too heavy to carry alone. He wasn't asking me for anything. That was the part that wrecked me. Men always wanted something.
Lauren’s POV I slipped out of the penthouse just after two in the morning, my heart hammering in my chest. Julian had been watching me again all night—those dark eyes following every move I made, like he was waiting for me to crack. We hadn’t fucked, hadn’t even touched, but the air between us felt thicker than usual. Suffocating. I’d lain there pretending to sleep while he worked at his desk across the room, the low glow of his laptop casting shadows on his face. Every time I shifted, he looked up. Every damn time.I couldn’t take it anymore. The unknown number on Serena’s phone kept buzzing with cryptic shit. Silas was the only one who might have real answers without putting a bullet in my head for asking. Julian had already cut him loose, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t find him.The city lights blurred past the cab window as I hunched low in the back seat, Serena’s oversized coat wrapped around me like a shitty disguise. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Street smarts from years in
CHAPTER SEVENTEENLAUREN’S POVBy the time Julian brought me to a lunch meeting, I already knew one thing.Being his wife was not just exhausting.It was dangerous.The building was all glass, steel, and expensive silence. Men in suits moved too carefully. Women in polished smiles watched too much.
CHAPTER FIFTEENLAUREN’S POVI stopped breathing.Julian stood at the entrance of Dante Rossi’s private dining room like he had walked in just to make the whole ship remember who mattered more.His eyes found mine first.And just like that, every stupid choice that had brought me here climbed up my
CHAPTER ELEVENLAUREN’S POVJulian did not rush me.That was the first thing that made it worse.He just stood there for a second, looking down at me like he had all the time in the world, like he was deciding which part of me to cut open first. Then he dragged another chair across the floor and sa
CHAPTER SIXLAUREN’S POV “Shock,” I shot back immediately. “It's called shock, Julian. Have you heard of it?”His eyes narrowed. “Shock doesn't stop basic human reflexes. You stood there like a stone.”“Maybe I'm just used to the pain of being around you,” I spat.He opened his mouth to reply, his







