built to intimidate, but today it felt less li

nut table. Around the room sat the heavy hitters of corporate finance, the senior partners, the legal hawks, and the PR specialists hired to m

, perfectly composed, impeccably dressed in a bespoke midnight-black suit, with his dark hair swept back and his steel-blue eyes locked dead ah

his gaze sh

were cold, resting flat against the metal casing. Today was the day the mask would start to slip. Today, the acqu

his voice cutting cleanly th

o speak with a calm, practiced precision that entir

d, projecting my voice steadily across the room. "Their liquidity is tied up in overseas logistics expansion, leaving their domestic reserves v

partners. One of them, a veteran closer named Marcus Vance-

burning in the depths of his eyes. He knew what this meant. He knew I ha

l into the asset-transfer protocol. A hidden circuit breaker. It wouldn't stop the takeover, but it would buy my father exactly seventy-two hours to restructure their holdi

tners began packing up their folders to execute the trades. "You're bleeding them dry

irk onto my face, meeting his gaze head-on. "I'm on th

ng his features before he masked it with a cold corporate facad

ping lawyer. The silence that followed was suffocating, thick with unspoken tension a

ven close my lapt

the edge of the wood with both hands and caging me in. He leaned down, his face

e trying to read every line of code in my head. "Every analyst I've ever hired shakes or s

y a breath away from his lips. My heart hammered against

tly tangling into the hair at the nape of my neck, tilting my face up. His thumb brushed across my low

g " he murmured, his gaze dropping to my mouth before locking back onto my eyes with fierce intensity, "

oaring in my ears, completely helpless against t

es as he lowered his head the remaining fraction of an inch, capt

t to anchor myself as his lips parted mine with a fierce, possessive hunger that tasted like absolute ruin. All the hatre

eavily, his forehead rested against mine,

both," Julian whisp