Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 31 - Chapitre 40

Chapter Thirty-Two: The File She Didn't Need to DeliverRose POVMy glass office is quiet except for the soft click of my keyboard.I am supposed to be reviewing the final asset transfers from Blackwood Holdings. The numbers are clean. The signatures are final. Everything is exactly as it should be. The figures sit in neat columns. I have read the same column three times.My mind is not on any of it.It is on the way Kai's hands felt on my thighs last night. I can still feel them there if I press my own hand against the spot. I stop myself.On the low, dark sound he made when I pulled away.On the single, slow kiss I left on his mouth. I meant it to stay there.The sun has moved across the carpet since I last looked. I did not see it go. I check my phone for the fourth time in ten minutes.No missed calls.No messages.No black rose waiting at reception.Nothing.The phone is silent, black, and perfectly still. It has never been so loud.Annoyance tightens under my ribs so sharply I a

Chapter Thirty-Four: Sharp as ScissorsRose POVI arrive at the office ten minutes early, still tasting last night's argument with Kai on my tongue. I did not sleep. I rehearsed what I would say if he called. He didn't call. The private elevator opens directly into my floor. The glass walls show the city in pale morning gray. My heels are loud on the floor. The second the doors part I stop dead. The doors slide shut behind me. I don't hear them.A massive bouquet of deep red roses sits in the center of my glass desk. Dozens of them, almost black at the edges, wrapped in matte black paper and tied with a single silk ribbon. The petals are so dark they look wet. The ribbon was tied by someone who did not hurry. Beside it, absurd and deliberate, sits a large cream teddy bear holding a smaller envelope between its paws. Its fur is soft. Its stitched smile is crooked. Someone chose it on purpose.Priya is already standing to the side with her arms crossed, trying not to smile. Her eyes go

Chapter Thirty-Six: Grocery RunKai POVThe lockdown lifts at dawn. Roads reopen. I have not slept. I spent the night walking the penthouse, checking the doors one at a time. Twice. My first instinct is to keep the three of us inside another day.Rose's first instinct is to refuse.Her voice is calm. She has already decided. I know the sound.I check the street through the window. Quiet. Too quiet. I know it is only the end of the lockdown. I know I am being paranoid. I do not stop."Jay wants cereal that isn't the brand you stock," she says. She is already in boots and a black coat over a simple dress. "And I want air that isn't filtered through your security. No detail. Just us. Two hours. If you can't handle that, stay home."My jaw tightens. I look at Jay, who is already holding a reusable bag in both hands, ready. He looks from her to me and back again, waiting. I could have a car follow at a distance. She would see it. I let the thought go. Then I look at Rose."Two hours. My ca

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Unplanned WaterRose POVI walk Jay to the gate myself. One hand on his shoulder the whole way. Harlan's men stand at the corners where I can see them. Kai's men are somewhere I can't, which is how he wants it. I check every car that slows down. I check every face at the curb. A man with a stroller. A woman on her phone. A van that has been parked too long. I memorize its plate. I did not sleep last night. I lay awake listening to the apartment, every pipe and every footstep in the hall, and each time I got up to check on Jay he was breathing the same way he always does.At the gate I kneel and fix his collar. It doesn't need fixing. My hands do it anyway."If anything feels wrong—anything—you find Harlan first. Then you call me. Not later. Immediately."Jay nods. He is serious about it, the way a child gets when he has already seen too much."I will. Are you and Uncle Kai still mad at the people with the flower?"My mouth softens before I can stop it."We're not

Chapter Forty: The Night the Mask Finally CrackedRose POVThe door is still closed behind me.Kai's mouth is on mine like he has been starving for months and has finally been allowed to feed. The kiss is not gentle. It is claim and punishment and relief all at once. My back hits the wood hard enough to rattle the frame. One of his hands fists in my hair. The other grips my bare thigh under the silk of the nightgown and lifts, settling me against him until there is no space left between our bodies.I do not push him away.I bite his lower lip hard enough to pull a low, broken sound from his throat. Then I kiss him deeper, nails digging into his shoulders. The bond between us is no longer a quiet pull. It is a live current tearing through both of us. My wolf is howling. His is answering.When we break for air, we are both breathing like we have been running.Kai's voice is wrecked."Say it."My eyes are dark. My lips are swollen. The diamond rises and falls against my throat, fast."Sa