And so was Colton.
Gideon’s jaw ticked, but his voice stayed level. “She’s not involved in anything that concerns the family.”
Colton’s smile barely formed. Just a faint, knowing curve. “It needs to stay that way,” he murmured. His gaze moved to the bar where Arden worked with calm confidence. She looked like she belonged. But she was being hunted.
“For her sake.”
Gideon didn’t respond. Not with words.
But his posture shifted, shoulders squaring enough to draw the line.
Colton didn’t push.
He didn’t have to.
His point had been made.
And it lingered, quiet and barbed, in the space between them.
Sebastian movedthrough the room like gravity owed him something: unhurried, polished, and utterly sure of his place.
His suit? Flawless.
His smile? Disarming. Dangerous by design.
His presence? Intrusive, in the way of men who never ask permission to take up space.
He stopped at the bar, resting a hand lightly on the edge as though he owned it. A smirk curled across his mouth:: cool, entitled, practiced.
“So… Arden,” he said, his voice low and easy. “Word is, you’re hard to impress.”
Arden lifted her head from the glass she was drying. She didn’t smile. Didn’t blink. Just met his eyes.
“Maybe don’t believe everything you hear, Sebastian.”
He gave a soft laugh, the kind meant to disarm. “I usually don’t,” he said, eyeing her with slow, curated confidence.
“I prefer firsthand evaluations.” His gaze drifted, not subtle or rushed. He took her in the way some men window-shopped for things they planned to steal. The line of her waist. The curve of her hip. The way the fabric clung to her skin in all the wrong places for a conversation like this.
“Not every day someone walks into this world and holds their ground,” he said, voice curling at the edges. “I can see why Gideon’s… intrigued.”
Arden’s fingers went still against the rim of her glass.
That spark in her chest? Not embarrassment. Irritation. Restraint.
Her voice was cool. Controlled. “I’m just here to work.”
Sebastian tilted his head, studying her with careful, calculated quiet—testing for fractures.
“Is that all it is?” he asked, tone curious but edged with something sharper.
Something that wanted in.
Arden opened her mouth?—
“That’s enough.”
Gideon’s voice sliced through the room. Cold. Commanding. Unmistakable.
