Eve shifts her weight with a smirk. “Well, this turned awkward fast.”
She punches something on the control panel mounted to the desk. The contract lights up on the TV screen above it, crisp and glaring.
“We need to set a duration,” she says. “The contract requires a mutually agreed end date.”
“Ninety days,” I say without hesitation.
Cassidy lifts her chin. “A month.”
My jaw tightens. “Why a month?”
“Stop with the fucking questions.” she says flatly. “One month.”
She’s pushing me—again. Always testing, always drawing a new line in the sand, and daring me to cross it. It’s infuriating how calm she is, how easy she makes it look to stand there and act like I didn’t just spend the last half hour watching men try to buy her.
I hold her stare, jaw locked, breath tight. I didn’t even know what I was going to say until the words flew out of my mouth.
“Move in with me.”
Her head snaps toward me. “What? I can’t move in with you.”
“Then it’s ninety days.”
She hesitates, eyes darting like she’s searching for an escape hatch. But there isn’t one. Not anymore.
“Move in with me,” I say again, low and firm. “And I’ll agree to a month.”
I can already see the battle happening behind her eyes. The calculation. The tension. But I also see the moment she realizes she doesn’t have another move.
She exhales slowly. “Fine.”
My grin is slow and sharp as I step into her. Taking up the space in front of her so she either has to step back or hold her ground.
She doesn’t budge.
I lower my mouth close to her ear, smelling her perfume and letting my exhale tickle her neck and whisper, “Good girl.”
Cassidy stiffens, and I feel the pull in my gut that only she ever causes. This tension—this fire—it’s not going anywhere. Not now.
I turn to Eve. “Update the contract. Thirty days. She moves in tomorrow.”
Eve looks at Cassidy. She pauses a beat before sealing her fate and nodding in agreement.
The traitor, who used to be my friend, starts tapping the tablet again. Lucian watches in silence from the back wall, arms crossed like he’s just here to make sure no one sets the room on fire.
Too fucking late for that.
I glance back at Cassidy. Her chin’s still high. Her jaw tight.
But I can see that flicker in her eyes.
She thinks she’s won. That she still has control.
Poor thing.
She doesn’t realize yet—I already own her.
And I plan to make sure she feels it.
