“I THINK WE’Dhave a lot more fun without an audience.” Sadie’s words were laced with invitation, her fingers trailing down my arm as if she had any right to claim me.
All around us, the bass of the club thrummed against the walls like a second heartbeat—low, relentless, and drowning out everything but bodies and desire. Between the strobe lights and overpriced bottle service, the booth we were tucked into was supposed to feel exclusive. Private. But the longer I sat here, the more suffocating it felt.
Sadie’s blue eyes glinted with the promise of an unforgettable night, but unfortunately for her, I wasn’t interested. Despite her tight dress and come-hither attitude, she wouldn’t be coming home with me tonight.
Tall, with long platinum blonde hair and a body that could stop traffic, Sadie Stevens was gorgeous, there was no denying that. But instead of making plans to take the Hollywood actressback to my place, I found myself zoning out, only half paying attention to the kisses Sadie was peppering on my neck.
I sat back against the plush velvet couch, my eyes glued to the glass of Hennessy Paradis in my hand, though I wasn’t really focusing on it.
My thoughts kept drifting back to that damn dinner with Elise in my office two weeks ago. The plan was simple on paper: get Elise to fall for me.
But in reality, it was anything but. Because the truth was, I wasn’t just asking her to fall for me. I was asking her to believe in something that didn’t exist.
And I knew exactly what that made me.
I could’ve offered her a deal. Made it clean. Mutually beneficial.
She would’ve walked out before I finished the sentence because Elise wasn’t the kind of woman you negotiated with. She didn’t want convenience. She didn’t want security dressed up as affection.
She wanted something real.
Which meant I had to give her the illusion of it.
I dragged a hand over my jaw, exhaling slowly.
I didn’t like it. Not the deception. Not the idea of watching her trust me, knowing exactly where it was leading. But the alternative was losing everything my father had built.
And that wasn’t an option.
Still, there was a part of this I hadn’t fully accounted for. Because at some point, she was going to find out. And when she did, she wouldn’t just be angry.
She’d walk.
No hesitation. No second chances. No looking back.
Which meant the window I was working with wasn’t indefinite.
It was limited.
I just had to make sure that when she found out, the cost of leaving would outweigh the impulse to do it.
That meant everything had to be careful, calculated, controlled. I had to peel back her walls slowly, not shove the truth in her face before she was ready. Because if I was blunt, she’d walk. And maybe that would be the last time I saw her.
I wasn’t just trying to soften her up; I was trying to keep control. Keep the upper hand in a game where I felt dangerously exposed.
Love had destroyed my father. It left him broken, bitter, and empty. Watching that ruin him made me swear I’d never let it happen to me.
Having dinner in my office seemed like a natural first step. It wasn't the first time we shared a meal but I realized too late that I couldn’t treat this like one of the thousands of times we ate together.
To get Elise to see me as more than her boss, I had to change the dynamic and let her see me as a person, not just a businessman. That meant removing the mask of the man she’d always seen and showing her a different side, no matter how foreign that side felt.
The glass of brandy in my hand was almost gone, but I wasn’t drinking it fast enough to dull the persistent memory of Elise and I in my office.
Her voice had been soft, almost vulnerable, as she tried to convince me the Monarch reps saw something in me. The way she’d looked at me, like she wasn’t just seeing the CEO, but the man beneath the surface, had thrown me off. Elise didn’t fit the mold of someone who flattered for the sake of manipulation. That dinner and her unguarded words, had left me rattled in a way I couldn’t shake.
Sadie’s lips on my skin pulled me back to the present, but the distraction was fleeting. She could tell something was off.Her kisses stopped, and I felt her eyes on me. “What’s going on with you tonight?” she asked, her voice a mix of irritation and curiosity.
I didn’t answer right away. Instead, I set my glass down on the table and leaned back into the couch, letting the silence stretch between us. Sadie was waiting for an explanation, but I was no longer in the mood to entertain her.
