MasukEvelyn POVBelle studied me for a long moment. The humour had drained from her face, replaced by the quiet, fierce protectiveness that had made her my best friend in the first place."Can I give you my honest opinion?""Please.""You have two options. Option one: You choose none of them. You step back from all three, focus on yourself, on Bennett Holdings, on Green Valley, and on the launch and on building the empire you fought for. You tell all three of them that you need space, and you take it. No guilt, no obligations, no tangled sheets.""And option two?"Belle shrugged. "Option two: you keep all three. No commitment. No exclusivity. No promises you're not ready to keep. You're a grown woman, Evelyn. You're allowed to explore what you feel without signing a contract. As long as you're honest about what you're doing, there's nothing wrong with taking your time to figure out who you actually want." She paused. "Or if you want any of them at all."I sat with that for a moment, turnin
Evelyn POVI pressed my palms against my eyes. "It was... intense. It was the most intense experience of my entire life, and I'm including nearly dying on that list. But afterwards, he pulled away completely. When he learned it was my first time, he got cold, distant, started talking about how we were a mistake, how he needed to focus on his business, how he couldn't afford to have vulnerabilities. He basically told me that sleeping with me was an error in judgment.""He said that to you? After sleeping with you?""Not in those exact words, but yes. That was the message. And I was devastated, Belle. I was completely shattered. I'd opened myself up to someone for the first time since I left Adrian, actually let myself feel something real, and he just... shut the door in my face. I left his apartment in tears, and a few minutes later, I discovered I'd been kidnapped.Belle's expression had shifted from gossip mode to something softer. She reached over and squeezed my knee."I'm sorry,"
Evelyn POVThe four words hung in the air between us.Of all people, Adrian?My mouth opened and closed twice before anything resembling coherent language came out."Vincent, it's not what you think."Even as I said it, I knew how it sounded. It was the most clichéd sentence in English. The words every guilty person reaches for when they've been caught doing exactly what they look like they've been doing.I could have written it on a greeting card: Sorry, I was making out with my ex-fiancé on a boardroom table. It's not what you think.Vincent looked at me, but not with anger; that would have been easier. Anger I could have worked with, argued against, met with my own fire. But Vincent didn't get angry. He did something far worse.He was quiet."You don't need to explain anything to me, Evelyn.""I want to explain. Just listen to me for a second. Adrian showed me something, some evidence about Isabella and the kidnapping, and it was overwhelming, and we were talking, and things just.
Evelyn POVThe corridor outside the boardroom was mercifully empty. I walked fast, my heels clicking against the marble in a rapid staccato that matched my heartbeat. My reflection flashed past in the glass walls on either side, and I caught a glimpse of myself: flushed cheeks, swollen lips, hair that someone's fingers had definitely grabbed in the recent past.Evelyn Bennett, what the hell is wrong with you?Seriously. What was wrong with me? Not twenty minutes ago, I'd been telling Adrian that I didn't trust him. That Isabella was a knife waiting on the other side of every moment I let my guard down. That his history of hurting me was too deep and too recent for a resignation letter and some phone screenshots to fix.And then he'd touched my face and I'd just... melted? Like butter? Like some pathetic, hormone-driven teenager who'd never been kissed before? I'd let him put me on a TABLE. A boardroom table! The same table where budget meetings happened! Where quarterly reviews were p
Evelyn POVHis fingers moved to the top button of my blouse.He undid it slowly, pressing his lips to the newly exposed skin at the base of my throat. Then the second button, and his mouth followed, tracing the line of my collarbone with a deliberateness that made my toes curl inside my heels.The third button came undone, and I felt the cool air of the boardroom against my chest, followed immediately by the warmth of his hand sliding across my bare skin. His palm moved up my stomach, over the lace edge of my bra, and I arched into his touch with a sharp intake of breath that echoed off the glass walls.His thumb traced the line of lace along the curve of my breast, and I gripped the front of his shirt hard enough that I heard a seam protest. He made a rough sound against my throat, something between a groan and a growl, and his other hand slid up my thigh, pushing the hem of my skirt higher.My legs wrapped around him instinctively, pulling him closer, and the contact made both of us
Evelyn POVThe silence between us was thick enough to touch.I was still holding his phone, the screen full of evidence that should have made me feel vindicated, powerful, armed. Instead, I felt hollowed out. Like someone had reached inside my chest and scooped out everything familiar, leaving behind a raw, aching emptiness that I didn't know how to fill.Adrian leaned forward in his chair. Slowly, deliberately, he reached for my hand again. This time, when his fingers closed around mine, there was no calculation in the gesture. It wasn't a performance. His grip was firm but careful, the way you'd hold something precious that you were afraid of breaking."Evelyn." His voice was rough at the edges, like he'd been holding the words back for a long time and they'd worn grooves in his throat on the way out. "I need you to hear me. I cannot forgive anyone who tried to take your life, not even Isabella or anyone. And I will do whatever it takes to prove that to you. Whatever it takes. Howev
Gabriel POV"Who sent you?" I asked, striking the man tied to the chair.The overhead lamp was the only light in the dark room, casting shadows across his bruised face. His left eye was swollen shut, and blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.The man's face lolled to the right, and then he sta
Evelyn POVI walked into Bennett Corporation at nine in the morning on a Tuesday, and I knew something was wrong the moment I stepped through the doors.The lobby was filled with people. My people. The staff I'd been trying so hard to keep employed and paid, even when I had no money.They were hold
Evelyn POVI shoved hard against his chest.“What is wrong with you?” I hissed, dragging myself out of his hold.Ignoring the eyes still watching us, he reached for my shoulders, fingers skimming my arms as if checking for bruises."Are you alright? I was so worried when I found out you'd been on t
Evelyn POVI sat in the airport lounge, staring at the scrawled note in my hands.The handwriting was terrible, like a child had written it. Or maybe someone who'd never held a pen before in their life. The letters were uneven and shaky, and some were barely legible.I tried to reread it, squinting







