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SMOKE AND SILK part 1

Author: ELSA RIVERS
last update Huling Na-update: 2025-10-09 22:10:21

THIRD PERSON POV

Paris shimmered beneath the evening sky, a thousand city lights glinting off the river like liquid gold. From the top floor of the Beaumont Hotel, Lucien Moreau stood behind the glass wall, his reflection framed against the skyline. He looked calm, collected, perfectly in control, the way people expected a man like him to be.

But beneath that stillness, his thoughts were sharper than the cut of his suit. Tonight was not just another corporate meeting. Tonight was personal.

He had returned to Paris for one reason only — the acquisition of Marchand & Co., a jewel of a company that had eluded him for years. And behind that empire stood her.

Celeste Marchand.

Once his equal. Once his rival. Once the woman he almost loved.

Lucien’s jaw tightened at the memory. He remembered the last time they stood in the same room, both younger, reckless, drunk on ambition. She had betrayed him in a deal that cost him everything but his pride.

He had built himself back from that. Brick by
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