Then he went back to the marble. Pressed his palm flat against the stone.
Still warm.
He dragged the cloth slow across the stone, erasing the heat.
He could wait.
ELEVEN
Red Carpet Reckoning
April
The glam team had arrived like a small, efficient army. April sat in her apartment while they painted her face into something that looked like confidence and pinned waves into place with the precision of people who understood hair could be a statement or a shield.
Killian had sent them. He was still in the board meeting but he'd made sure she wouldn't walk into tonight unprepared.
Her phone had buzzed.
Killian:Be April. Be yours.
She'd stared at the message. Four words.
He didn't saybe mine.But everything else did. The flowers. The glam team. The timing.
April had typed back:Trying.
Deleted it.
April:Okay.
Sent that instead.
The doorbell rang.
Liam stood in her hallway holding a garment bag and two small gift boxes, looking like he'd been born in a tuxedo and had simply never bothered to change out of it.
"Final touches," he said. He draped the garment bag over her couch and picked up one of the boxes. He opened it with thecare of someone handling something meant to hold up under pressure.
April had expected jewelry. Maybe a clutch. Liam lifted the first piece, then laid it out like evidence.
She looked down at what he'd set out for her: black lace, clean lines, construction that felt intentional.
"Did you bring me panties?"
"They're armor. So you read powerful top to bottom. Confidence starts before anyone sees your face." His eyes dropped once, taking in the lines and structure, then lifted again. "I want every piece of you reinforced tonight. Not just the parts people see."
April looked down again. At lace that wasn't decoration. At structure that wasn't about him.
April's mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.
"You brought me power panties." She was a woman rethinking every article of clothing she'd ever put on under a dress.
She nodded once. "Okay."
Liam's expression shifted, not quite a smile, but closer.
He opened the second box.
