LOGINMATILDA’S POVThe noise of the den didn’t feel the same when we walked back in.It was still loud. Still alive. Music humming low under conversations, glasses clinking, boots dragging across concrete floors. But there was something underneath it now. Something quieter. Sharper. Like everyone knew something had just happened… and no one was saying it out loud.Blossom walked beside me, but slower this time.Not her usual bounce. Not her easy glow.Just… smaller.I didn’t touch her. I didn’t know if she wanted that. Didn’t know if I even had the right. So I stayed close instead, guiding her toward the bar like that alone could hold her together.The bartender looked up the second we approached. Her normally hard face dissolved into concern immediately she saw Blossom “Hey,” she said softly, already reaching for a glass. “Sit.”Blossom didn’t argue. She slipped onto one of the stools, fingers curling lightly around the edge like she needed something solid.A glass of water was placed in
GIDEON VALEI walked without slowing, without acknowledging anyone who crossed my path. People moved out of the way instinctively anyway. They always did. There was something in my expression that told them not to test it.Good.Because I didn’t have the patience for mistakes today.By the time I reached my office, my jaw was still tight, my mind still louder than it should have been. That… rarely happened. I didn’t carry things with me like that. I handled them. I ended them. I moved on.That was how control worked.But today something had followed me into that room.And I didn’t like it.The door slammed harder than intended behind me, the sound cracking through the space like a gunshot. Silence followed immediately, thick and suffocating.I stood there for a second.Just standing.Breathing.Letting the last remnants of that room drain out of my system.It didn’t.My hand moved to the bar without thought. The glass was already in my grip before I registered it. Scotch. No ice. No h
GIDEON VALEThe door closed behind me with a quiet finality that most people would have mistaken for calm.It wasn’t.The room was soundproof. Clean. Deliberate. Built for moments exactly like this, where noise didn’t need to escape for damage to be done. The man stumbled forward the second my men let go of him, catching himself on shaking hands before turning back, eyes wide, breath uneven, panic already setting in like rot.I stepped forward slowly, rolling my sleeves up with measured precision, my gaze fixed on him in a way that made men understand, very quickly, that this was no longer a situation they could talk their way out of.“I didn’t— I didn’t know—” he started, his voice breaking over itself as he backed up a step. “I didn’t know she was—”“Mine?” I finished calmly.The word hung in the air. Not loud. Not dramatic.But absolute.His throat bobbed. “I wasn’t trying to— I just asked for her number, that’s all. I swear, that’s all—”I tilted my head slightly, studying him lik
MATILDA’S POV“I thought you said we need to talk,” I said, my voice cutting clean through the silence. “So talk.”The words sat between us like something thrown, something sharp enough to draw blood if it landed wrong.Gideon didn’t answer immediately.Of course he didn’t.He never rushed anything. Not words. Not decisions. Not people.He sat there in that perfectly tailored three-piece suit, like he had been carved into it instead of dressed, posture relaxed but not careless, one arm resting along the back of the chair like he owned not just the room, but the air inside it. And his eyes—God.His eyes moved.Slow.From my face…Down.Deliberate. Unapologetic. Like he was reading something written on my body that I didn’t even know was there.And I hated that I felt it.That awareness crawling under my skin, making me hyper-conscious of everything—the fall of my dress, the way I was standing, the fact that I had walked into his house like I wasn’t stepping straight back into a proble
GIDEON VALEI can’t get her out of my mind. She’s turning my carefully built world upside down and it’s fucking annoying. I’m slipping up. I don’t ever slip up. I couldn’t afford it.The thought doesn’t come once. It loops. It presses. It lingers like something unfinished, something scratching at the inside of my skull, refusing to be ignored no matter how many times I try to file it away under irrelevant.Matilda Monroe.Even her name feels like disruption. Too sharp. Too alive. It doesn’t sit quietly the way everything else in my life does. It doesn’t obey structure. It doesn’t fit.I stare at my phone longer than necessary, thumb hovering just above the screen, already knowing what I’m about to do before I actually do it. This is not hesitation. I don’t hesitate. This is calculation. This is correction.Distance is necessary.Control is necessary.She is neither.Don’t come in today.I type it out. Simple. Direct. No room for interpretation. No room for her to twist it into somethi
MATILDA’S POVI woke up expecting him.Not in my room, of course! Not physically.But… something.A message. A command. A location.That was the rhythm now, wasn’t it?Sleep. Wake. Gideon Vale.My hand moved before my brain did, reaching for my phone like it had already learned him. The screen lit up, too bright for the hour, too loud for the silence in my chest.There was one message from him.I stared at it longer than I should have.Don’t come in today.That was it. No explanation.My brows pulled together slowly. “What?”The word came out quiet, more confused than annoyed. I sat up, the sheets falling to my lap, heart doing something strange. Not racing. Not calm either. Just… off. Like it had been expecting a different script and now didn’t know how to behave.Don’t come in today.I read it again.And again. And somehow, it got worse every time.Why? The question slipped in before I could stop it.Why wouldn’t he want me there? My jaw tightened immediately.Not want me there? Sinc







