the mouse, Vivian had

e of her safe drops, paid for through shell corporations that even Julian's forensi

ed a Vogue closet. Vivian stripped off the jeans and t-shirt she had worn from the penthouse. She pulled a garment ba

to her inner thigh before realizing she wouldn't need it tonight. Probably.

Royal Court Club, Vivian was no longer the r

t rattled the fillings in your teeth. It was a rhythmic, thumping

former intern and only real friend during the dark years, grabbed her arm. Winni

uted over the noise. "This dress... it's a

he strap of the silk dress, "we bur

black card. It wasn't a credit card; it was a membership token to an exclusive underground society that owned hal

wasn't her scene. Rose was used to high-stakes galas in Vienna or underground poker games in Macau, not the grind

g the dance floor. Winnie ordered a

creamed, clinking her

ing of anise and bad decisions. "To freedom," she

to leave trails in her vision. Vivian felt a heat rising in her blood that had nothing to do with the tempera

er hand gripping the edge of

," Winnie said, sta

n, a little too forcefully. "I'm

of bodies. A waiter, balancing a tray of champagne, collide

ped, but his eyes l

emed to elongate, stretching like a rubber band. The patterns on the carpet-interlock

lub was muffled here, a distant throb. There were no res

Su

rable, a fever that made her skin sensitive to the brush of th

a door.

her current state, a normal woman would have slumped against the wall an

go, found a sudden, terrifying precision. She slid the pin into the eme

ht turn

was in those drinks, took a backseat to the desper

tains were drawn tight. The air was cool and smel

r heel caught on the thick pile

ad, she landed on something solid. S

come here to escape the noise, to nurse a headache that felt like a railroad spike being

in Krav Maga. But his limbs felt like lead. The drug-someone had definitel

, slender and trembling,

the

It was complex. Wild rose, but underneath that, something darker. Musk. Amber. It hit his n

roaked, his v

nswer. She shifted, her leg slid

dialed up to eleven. He felt the silk of her dress. The bare ski

ho

as just an anchor. A source of cool in the fire consuming her. She move

romantic. It w

cting on their own accord, came up to grip her waist

d-Sterling. He didn't do this. He didn't d

It told him that this was exactly what h

ped the

grounding. His hands were everywhere-rough, demanding, possessive. She couldn't s

he physical sensation-the sting, the pr

r neck, biting down on the se

't a qu

und of ragged breathing in a silent room. It was two people, stripped o

from the sheer intensity of it. For two years, she had

e that returned to the room

er stomach, pinning her down. His breathing slowed,

invisible ceiling. The heat was fadi

ad she

he slid out from under him, her body aching in places she ha

ess, her panties. She dressed in a pa

before the lights came on. Bef

to check her pulse, a h

d met b

containing the micro-engraving of her

g the thick carpet frantically. Her fingers br

th

a. He mumbled something u

it, he might wake up. If he woke up, he would see her. He woul

ldn't r

in her throat. She looked at the sl

he whispered t

ehind her, leaving her necklace-and her dignity-buri