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I’m throbbing.

What he says about power is true—I feel his, and it’s pure temptation even before his touch strokes up my thighs, his hand gripping my ass to fit me against him.

My spinning head can’t tell if it’s seconds or minutes later when he pulls back an inch, eyes dark as the sky.

“You’re welcome,” he whispers against my mouth.

14

HARRISON

I’ll never admit it to anyone, but sometimes I’m a fucking idiot.

Still, I’m never a fucking idiot two days in a row.

I rise early and punish my body with a hard workout before showering and selecting a suit. It’s nearly ten when I meet Toro at the front of the villa for the drive to Christian’s house.

“Pleasant evening?” he asks, meeting my gaze in the mirror.

“Interesting.”

Getting Rae’s song played last night at La Mer wasn’t planned.

I believe in her, but I’m practical too. The business part of my brain reminded me La Mer has its pick of the world’s top DJs regardless of who owns it.

And she will be one of the best.

The possibility that she needed to hear that had never occurred to me because she’s so damn independent.

I’m supposed to want to put things right in my business, and my life. It matters more than anything. Except…

All I could think about last night was proving myself to Rae.

So, I grabbed her and did what I’ve been thinking about for fucking weeks.

Kissing her on the dance floor wasn’t planned, but when I saw her cutting through the crowd, searching me out, a beast unfurled inside me. One that wanted to protect her. To make sure nothing ever hurt her the way I had.

My reward was the single hottest kiss of my life.

She’s infiltrated my life, and I have no one to blame but myself. I brought her here, was hellbent on punishing her and reclaiming what she’d cost me.

Instead, she’s turned me inside out.

She’s a siren with a sound system and the power to move everyone she can reach. And even though she hasn’t spilled her problems at my feet, I see her pain as plainly as if she had.

The woman lives out of a single suitcase, has a love-hate relationship with the bottle of pills she hasn’t touched since I replaced them, and creates extraordinary music.

But I have to keep the part of me that’s obsessed with Raegan Madani in check this morning because we’re back to business and Brioni.

“Well, if you have more interesting evenings planned, I hope you will celebrate her birthday,” Toro says.

“Her birthday?” I echo.

“This weekend.”

I bite my tongue before saying what comes to mind. What the fuck do you get the woman you can’t get out of your head when you have no business thinking about her?

We’re not dating. At worst, she’s my hostage. At best, my employee.