ad passed si

y: his public outburst in the square was nothing more than a powerful magnate saving face, a fleeting, impulsive fancy for a fallen girl. She gambled r

us. She laid out her terms: Jenilee was to come alone to the Long Island estate, no calls to Deven, no telling anyone. If she al

Yet she could not gamble w

nster," Jeni

of offering our apologies, to beg him to reopen our financing. Men perched so high above the world only care for appearances and fleeting amusement. I want you

ted to a cardboar

. You will smile, you will pour his drinks, and you will show ever

lose, her breath hot

f you shed a single tear, my brother pulls the plug

ared at herself in the tarnished

an aggressively low neckline and a short, frayed white apron that bar

r, bit her lip until the color returne

of glittering crystal, h

ropped up on an ottoman, his face pale and sweating. Clementina

ad of the tab

k, his face an impenetrable mask of cold arrogance as he listen

ound the neck of a chilled bottle of Chateau Margaux as

n's gaze befo

ntly. Deven stopped mid-sentence, his slate-gray eyes lo

one, the tight polyester clinging to her waist, and

cracked under the sudden,

seats down, cleared her th

dripping with artificial sweetness. "Don't just sta

g breath. Step by step, she w

ntly that the rim of the wine b

her voice barely audible, refus

Sanders casually stretched he

nders's pump caugh

ard, the heavy glass bottle slipping from her wet fingers, se

ould hit his trou

ed, catching the neck of the falling bottl

ke an iron band, hauling her entire body across

h

his legs, her chest pressed flat against the crisp fabric of his shirt. The familiar, ov

room fell d

water, his face turn

g to her feet. "You clumsy, incompetent

her palms on Deven's broad

rry-let

er waist, slamming her back down against h

let her mo

ith a gaze so lethal, so utterly devoid of mercy, that the olde

ating rumble that shook the crystal glasses on the table, "a

into the exposed skin of her hip, his lips brushing t

an survive without

ak the suffocating silence. Mrs. Sanders stumbled backward, her chair