For a long, glorious moment, nobody in the shop moved.Sasha looked between the two men with the confused, terrified expression of someone watching a play in a language she didn't speak but could tell was about to end badly for somebody. Castellan stood frozen, one hand still hovering near the counter where he'd been about to slam it in fury thirty seconds earlier, now looking as though the hand belonged to a stranger."That card," Castellan said again, his voice smaller now, "requires a bloodline verification. It cannot simply be… you cannot simply..""Call the number on the back if you want," Nathan said, tilting his head. "I'm told it rings directly to my father's private office. He loves unscheduled calls from real estate developers at six in the evening. Truly, it's his favorite part of retirement."Castellan's face, already pale, went the color of old paper left in the sun. His mouth opened and closed twice, and Nathan thought, not for the first time, that shock did strange and u

The kiss was slow, and warm, and tasted faintly like the vending machine coffee she'd clearly been surviving on for two days. Nathan shut his eyes, locking his lips onto hers as she let out a soft moan. His hands wandered gently around her back, running from her shoulder blades to her lower back and all the way to her gluteal region.Nina buried her hands in Nathan’s hair, softly massaging his scalp while continually pushing herself against him. Her whole body was reacting helplessly. She loved him… she loved everything about him. This would not be the first kiss she’d had, but this would be the first she truly enjoyed… even in the worst condition —the smell of sanitizer and antiseptic wafting into her nose.But as Nathan's lips now found the back of her ear, gently nibbling it and sliding down her shoulders, she rolled her eyes to the back of her head —all she could smell was the purity and ecstasy of heaven. Like the Lemon and Orange blossoms in her garden. She could feel her thighs

The drive back to the estate was quiet, the kind of quiet that only existed at the exact center of a storm, in the small, false calm between two fronts.The hospital was five miles behind him, but the smell of it—antiseptic, stale air, and fear—was still stuck in the back of his throat.His right hand throbbed. Just a dull, rhythmic ache across the knuckles and the meat of his palm. He flexed his fingers against the leather wheel, the memory of the impact still humming in his nerves, replaying the last three hours in fragments that didn't quite fit together. A ruined florist. A kiss he'd been waiting months to have. A stepmother who wasn't. A father-in-law, maybe, someday, who barely remembered his own name but somehow still liked him best. A slap that had felt less like violence and more like punctuation.‘So this is what it takes,’ he thought now, the wipers dragging a heavy beat across the windshield. ‘This is how you get them to listen.’He shifted his jaw, the tension radiating

"He said something about me," she said. It wasn't a question. "That's why you hit him. Am I right or wrong?""Nina—""You don't have to tell me what." Her voice was steady. "I've had eighteen years of Connor. I can fill in the blanks. I just … " she exhaled. "Most guys would've led with it. 'Your brother called you this, so I defended your honor,' whole speech, waiting for the thank-you. You buried it. That's… " She stopped. "That's a weirdly rare thing, is all.""My father used to say something," Nathan said. "A man who repeats every insult he hears is just doing the insulter's work for free.""Your father sounds terrifying.""You have no idea," Nathan said, with feeling.She laughed again, softer this time, and he heard her stifle a yawn."Go to sleep," he told her. "Your dad's going to want you sharp tomorrow, foggy jokes and all.""You go to sleep. You have your big.. whatever it is. Your Friday thing you won't tell me about.""I'll sleep when it's done.""That's not a yes.""It's