I still had the itch that only her nails digging into my back could scratch.
I shouldn’t have gone that far with her. I knew it. Knew it the second she tugged at my tie; the moment her lips parted beneath mine. Knew it when I had her pinned underneath me, breathless and smirking, daring me to keep going. Daring me to lose control completely.
But I’d done it anyway.
And now, of course, I couldn’t get her out of my head.
As if Max could sense I was thinking about that damn woman again, my phone buzzed. A text flashed across the screen.
Max
Come to my office.
Probably about whatever Remy had just told me—Sebastian, Valentina, marriage—another mess I didn’t want to handle but knew I would anyway. I scrubbed a hand over my jaw, sighing heavily as I got up from my desk.
I shouldn’t have kissed her. Shouldn’t have let myself even start down that road. But I had. And now she was tangled in every thought, every decision.
This wasn’t going to end well.
When I walked into Max’s office, he looked up from his desk and tilted his head to the chair in front of him. I took a seat and told him, “The Castillo deal is rushed. If we’re folding in another pipeline, I want a cleaner paper trail. It’s too easy to trace it back to us.”
He flipped through the file. “You’re hesitant?” he asked. “Remy thinks it’s worth the risk. The Castillo Group moves heavy weight. If we lock this down, we control the flow. We dictate the margins.”
“We also open ourselves up to an SEC investigation. If they get even a whisper of Castillo’s money laundering, we’re going to be the first name on their subpoena list.”
Max studied me. “You usually like a challenge.”
I didn’t answer.
He was right. I did like challenges. Problems I could control, puzzles I could solve. It was the entire reason I’d thrived in intelligence, why I was good at the work I did now. The more complicated the better—it was the only thing that ever kept my attention.
But lately, challenges were starting to feel different.
They weren’t puzzles anymore, they were liabilities. Risks I couldn’t afford. Risks like Castillo. Risks like Sebastian. Risks like Valentina.
EspeciallyValentina.
I forced the thought aside and lifted my gaze back to Max. “I like challenges I can manage. Castillo’s a liability we can’t control.”
Max watched me quietly for another moment before finally nodding and leaning back in his chair. “Then manage it,” he said, like it was easy.
This was when I usually left. Got back to business. But instead I tapped my fingers against my knee and asked, “How are you going forward with Valentina?”
Max’s attention snapped to mine. “She’s pushing for her inheritance. Wants me to pick a husband so she can move on. How the hell am I supposed to do that when she rejects every name I put in front of her?”
I wanted to smile. Cleared my throat instead. “How many has she met?”
“Three.”
“Including Johnathan, the Fed?”
Max nodded. “Said they bore her. Next option is her last. I don’t have time for this. I tried being nice.”
“If you want compliance, you should have let her pick for herself.”
Max scoffed. “She did pick. She picked Cillian. Look how that turned out.”
I shifted in my chair. “Who’s left?”
