Dominic’s POVShe was still asleep when I slipped out of bed.The sun hadn’t even started to climb over the skyline yet, the world outside my window washed in the deep gray of predawn. The kind of quiet you didn’t get in this city often. I stood at the window for a long while, watching the first hints of light bleed into the darkness, and for the first time in a long damn time, I didn’t know what came next.Amelia Carter was a complication I should’ve avoided. Every instinct I had told me to keep my distance, to push her away before she got too close — before she saw too much. But it was already too late for that.Last night had proved it.I’d let my guard down. Let her touch parts of me no one else even knew existed. Not just my body — my past, my doubts, my damage. And in the cold light of morning, it terrified the hell out of me.Because she wasn’t like the others. The women I kept at arm’s length, the ones who didn’t ask questions, who didn’t expect anything beyond what I was wi
Amelia’s POVI didn’t remember how we made it to his bedroom. One minute, his mouth was on mine, hot and claiming, the next we were tangled in sheets, the city lights washing over us in fractured pieces through the tall windows. It was reckless, it was inevitable. Every part of me had known this would happen the second I stepped foot in that penthouse.But nothing prepared me for how it would feel. Not just the way his hands felt on my skin, rough and sure, or the way his mouth dragged over my collarbone like a man starved. It was deeper than that. It was the way he looked at me — like I wasn’t just a woman in his bed, like I wasn’t just Noah’s sister, like I was something that had always been his and he’d finally stopped fighting it.And God, I wanted to be that. Even if it broke us both.The room was quiet now. His body half-draped over mine, my fingers absently tracing the line of his shoulder where a faded scar cut through his skin. I hadn’t asked about it. I didn’t need to. I co
Dominic’s POVI stood by the floor-to-ceiling window of my penthouse, a glass of whiskey in hand, watching the city flicker beneath me like a living thing. The sky was dark now, streaked with clouds threatening rain, and for once, I welcomed the storm. It suited my mood.I wasn’t a man who second-guessed myself. Every decision I made was calculated, ruthless, necessary. I didn’t hesitate. Not in boardrooms, not in deals, not in anything that mattered.Except when it came to her.Amelia fucking Carter.I took a long, slow sip of the whiskey, the burn sharp and grounding as it slid down my throat. The message I’d sent her hours ago sat like a weight in my chest. I hadn’t even let myself think about what I’d say if she came. If she didn’t.And yet, here I was — pacing my own goddamn apartment like some restless idiot, waiting for a woman who should’ve been off-limits the moment she walked back into my life.It was never supposed to be this. Not with Amelia.She was Noah’s little sister.
Amelia’s POVI lay on my side, staring out the massive window of my apartment, watching the last streaks of twilight bleed out over the city. The room was quiet, but my mind was anything but. Every minute since I left Dominic’s office earlier that afternoon had been a war inside me. A tug of war between common sense and reckless, aching want.I should have walked away weeks ago. I told myself that, over and over. From the moment I accepted the job, I knew what it meant. I’d promised myself I could handle it. That it was just business, that my heart wouldn’t get involved. That Dominic Blackwood would stay in his box — my brother’s untouchable, impossible best friend. The man who made my blood simmer with a single glance, and drove me absolutely insane in every possible way.But somewhere between the late nights, the sharp words, the stolen looks, and that kiss — God, that kiss — I lost the battle.And now I was lying here, my stomach twisted in knots because he’d sent a message that bo
Dominic’s POVThe city stretched out beneath me, a vast sea of glass and steel and light, but inside this towering sanctuary, everything felt like it was closing in. I sat behind the polished mahogany desk in my office, fingers drumming absently against the cool surface. The skyline was a blur beyond the windows, but my vision was narrow, focused inward where the real storm raged.The office, with all its sleek luxury and cold efficiency, offered no refuge today. The weight of expectation sat on my shoulders like a leaden cloak — the unyielding mask I wore every day, the ruthless billionaire, the untouchable Blackwood. But beneath that facade, I was unraveling, piece by piece, and the last night with Amelia was the catalyst.Her presence was a paradox — the bright flame that could either warm or consume me. She’d seen through the walls I’d painstakingly constructed, saw the fractures I refused to admit existed. The truth was, I’d spent years burying my past, the betrayals, the losses,
Amelia’s POVThe soft morning light crept through the edges of the blackout curtains, painting faint patterns on the pale walls of Dominic’s apartment. The city was waking up outside — cars honking, footsteps echoing down distant streets — but here in the quiet sanctuary of the bedroom, time felt suspended, stretched thin like the fragile thread holding me in place.I lay still, the sheets tangled around my legs, my body warm from Dominic’s steady presence beside me. Yet despite the comfort, sleep eluded me. My mind was a battlefield of emotions—hope wrestling with fear, desire clashing with doubt.Last night’s revelations played endlessly on repeat. Dominic’s walls, so rigid and cold, had cracked wide open. His confession, raw and unguarded, had exposed the man beneath the billionaire mask—a man haunted by ghosts and burdened by pain. And in that vulnerability, something fragile and precious had been born between us.But the morning light demanded clarity, and with clarity came the h