So, I do what I always do when instinct threatens to interfere with control.
I pivot.
“I want to see more options,” I say coolly. “Different palettes. Alternative layouts. I’m not convinced yet.”
A lie. Or at least a distortion.
I could sign off on this today and no one would question it. But if I stay in this room any longer, surrounded by other men while my attention keeps snapping back to her, something will fracture. And fractures get noticed.
Jasmine looks at me, curious at first before she hides a smug grin behind a little twist of her lips. Adrik frowns slightly, already gauging what this means for timelines.
Jessica simply nods.
“Of course,” she says. “I can put together additional concepts.”
Professional. Controlled.
Mine flares in my chest like a curse.
“I have another meeting,” I add, already standing. “I’ll be in touch.”
I don’t wait for agreement.
I leave because staying is a risk.
In the hallway outside the boardroom, I loosen my tie and draw a breath in through my teeth. This pull I feel toward her is… inconvenient.
I don’t ever feel like this.
Women have always been a diversion. A transaction. Something I indulged in and discarded without consequence.Why does this feel different? Why does it feel like it’s trying to consume me?
I push it aside and go back to my work.
The afternoon is a mess of damage control and strategy.
The Mayor of Las Vegas has made it clear he will not support us in our… business endeavors, so I’ve had to go higher than that.
Governors matter. Governors decide which doors open quietly and which stay locked no matter how much money is offered.
And the man I’m backing for Governor of Nevada is a liability.
He has a serious weakness for women and an even worse habit of assuming his power will protect him from exposure. It won’t. Not without my intervention.
I spend hours on the phone with editors, donors, legal advisors. Stories get buried. Payments get redirected. A staffer disappears from a news cycle after accepting a very generous settlement and a nondisclosure agreement thick enough to choke on.
I heave a sigh. All of this effort for a man I don’t respect. But once he’s in office, he’ll look the other way while the Korolyov’s expand. New licenses. New properties. Fewer inspections. A clean path forward.
That’s what a Kingmaker does. He moves the pieces around the board so subtly that by the time the results are in, people are too shocked to question it. They question everything else instead.
No one ever looks in my direction, and I find a perverse pleasure in that.
By the time night falls, the situation is contained but unresolved. Still, even as I negotiate power and consequence, my thoughts keep straying.
Jessica.
The way she held herself under pressure. The heat that coiled tight in my body every time her eyes brushed over me. The precise competence she wielded like a weapon without realizing it.
I see her again, standing at the head of that table. See the subtle curve of her waist. The swell of her breasts beneath cream silk. The red knot of hair I want to pull loose just to see how it falls around her shoulders.
