Ethan stared at her. What caught him off guard was the smile.Aurora Sinclair didn't smile. Not like this. The woman was carved from ice in front of the public. Cold. Untouchable. The kind of beauty that made men fantasize and women seethe.Rumor had it the richest man in Crestwood had pursued her publicly. She'd shut him down without blinking, told him flat-out he wasn't her type. The gossip columns had a field day. Some whispered she didn't like men at all.But right now, standing at the bottom of those steps, Aurora Sinclair was beaming at him like she'd been waiting for Christmas morning.Sweet. Warm. Almost giddy.It was so far from her public image that Ethan's brain needed a second to reconcile the two."Have we met before?" he asked.Aurora's smile widened. "Of course. I've seen you more than ten times, Young Master."Ethan blinked.Aurora glanced at the suited men flanking the Maybach, then back at him. "This isn't the best place to talk." She tilted her head toward the car. "

The security guards at Lockwood Industries didn't even blink. They knew Ethan’s face this time. One nod, the gate lifted, and Ethan walked straight through the lobby to the elevator.He reached Vivian's office on the fourteenth floor and pushed the door open without knocking.Laughter. Vivian was perched on the edge of her desk, legs crossed, leaning toward Damian who sat in the guest chair with his bruised face tilted up at her. His split lip had been cleaned and bandaged, but he was smiling — that soft, wounded smile.And Vivian was looking at him with an expression Ethan had never seen directed at himself.Not once. Not in five years.Her eyes were soft. Warm. Full of something that went far deeper than fondness.Ethan's blood went cold."Am I interrupting?" His voice hit the room like a bucket of ice water.Vivian flinched. She shot off the desk so fast she nearly knocked over her coffee, putting three feet of distance between herself and Damian in half a second."Ethan!" She s

The office door slammed shut behind Ethan, and the silence that followed was deafening.Vivian stood behind her desk, chest heaving, fingers still tingling from the force of her signature.Damian leaned against the bookshelf, arms crossed, watching her with that patient, concerned expression he always wore so well.For thirty seconds, neither of them spoke.Then the adrenaline drained out of her like someone had pulled a plug.'What did I just do?'She sank into her chair. Her hands were shaking. She pressed them flat against the desk to make them stop.Three years. Three years of Ethan waking up before dawn to prepare her meals. Three years of pressed suits hanging on her closet door every morning. Three years of a man who never raised his voice, never pushed back, never made her life difficult in any way.Rational. Obedient. Convenient.She'd had it good. She'd had it really good.And she'd just signed it all away because her blood was running hot."Damian." Her voice came out small

By now, people were staring.Aurora caught the whispers first — a cluster of onlookers near the parking garage entrance, phones half-raised, eyes darting between her and the two people sprawled in front of her like wreckage from a car accident.Vivian noticed it at the same time Damian did. The color drained from both their faces simultaneously.They knew what this meant. Aurora Sinclair, CEO of Stellaris International Trading, caught in a public altercation outside a commercial building. If even one photo leaked — one clip, one thread on social media — the fallout would be catastrophic.And the fallout would land on them.Damian scrambled to his feet, brushing gravel off his sleeves with shaking hands. "Ms. Sinclair — we'll handle this. All of it. I have contacts in media suppression, PR crisis firms — we'll pay whatever it takes to make sure nothing from today gets out. Not a word, not a photo, nothing."Vivian nodded frantically beside him. "Absolutely. We'll contain everything. Yo