“Okay,” I finally say, the word almost escaping without my consent.
Jason’s relief is instant, his excitement clear through the phone. “Great! I’ll see you then. You won’t regret this, I promise.”
I nod, even though he can’t see it. “Yeah, sure. I’ll see you this weekend.”
I hang up, setting the phone down with a sigh. I tell myself this will be a distraction, that it’ll help me move on. But I can’t shake the feeling that it’s just another attempt to run away from the real problems I’ve been avoiding.
Still, for now, it’s enough.
Chapter Fourteen - Lukin
I sit at my desk, the soft glow of the desk lamp casting long shadows across the room. The air is thick with the remnants of business, the aftermath of the chaos I’ve been submerged in for the past few weeks.
The Dmitri family. They’d been encroaching on my territory for months—testing the waters, poking around where they didn’t belong. I’d buried myself in the details, tracking their moves, watching their every step until they made the mistake of trying to stake a claim where they didn’t have the right.
I chased them out of the country. It wasn’t as satisfying as I thought it would be. The job was too easy. They’re gone, for now, but I know they’ll come back. They always do.
But for now, there’s silence. A rare moment where I don’t have to worry about enemies at the gates, where I can breathe without the constant pressure of my empire pulling at me.
I should be enjoying it, but instead, I find myself right back at square one.
My mind drifts back to her.
Zoe.
The thought of her is a constant itch beneath my skin, a hunger that never fades, no matter how hard I try to focus on something else. She’s been haunting me for days. From the beginning when she looked at me in the club. To the way she tried to pretend I didn’t exist after that moment in the garden. The way her body responded to me the last night we shared together, even as she tried to push me away.
It should be simple. She’s just another woman. Another conquest, another name I can forget. But she isn’t.
She’s different.
I can’t shake her. I really want to.
The silence in my office presses in, and the temptation to reach for my phone, to track her again, is almost too much. I called off the guards I had shadowing her, deleted the tracking link, and stopped sending her flowers or gifts. But none of this is working.
She’s mine.
I can feel it deep in my bones. The way she responds to me. The way her body betrays her even when she tries to fight it. It’s not over, not by a long shot.
The clock ticks in the background, but all I can hear is her laugh, her voice, the way she looked at me that night. I don’t care about the business. I don’t care about the enemies waiting to pounce. All I care about right now is getting her back.
I’m the one who told her to leave.
I told her never to show herself again, that if she left, she was out. She didn’t belong in my world, and I made that clear.
And yet, here she is, lingering in the back of my mind—sharp and soft all at once. I haven’t asked about her. Haven’t searched for any sign of her. I haven’t needed to. But that doesn’t stop her from showing up.
She’s there, in the quiet moments when I’m supposed to be focusing on my work, on the empire I’ve spent years building. She’s in the spaces where I should be planning my next move, chasing down enemies, expanding my influence. But all I can think about is her.
She lingers in my thoughts like a shadow I can’t shake.
It’s maddening. The way she pulls at me, the way her presence invades everything, even in the silence. I can feel her—her eyes, her lips, the way her skin felt against mine. It’s like afucking fire that won’t go out. And no matter how hard I try, I can’t ignore it.
She’s not gone.
And that’s what’s driving me crazy.
I lean back in my chair, trying to focus on the reports in front of me, the contracts, the numbers, the power plays—but the thoughts of her are suffocating.
