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She is a poison in my veins that just won’t go away. I am worried if I don’t deal with her soon, it’ll be too late.

“Trust me, Cullen. I want this to be over with just as much as you.” He tucks the papers into his backpack. “Now, for the love of God, just lie low for the next few days.”

“I will.”

I have to fly back to Miami tomorrow to hand over the keys to my apartment before moving into my new place this weekend.

“I’ll contact you if anything else arises.”

“Then I hope to hell I don’t hear from you.”

He chuckles and takes off, leaving me to myself again.

When I’d set my schedule for today, I’d frontloaded it because I’d been planning to take Verity out tonight once she was done with work.

My reservation still stands, but all my texts and calls to her have gone unanswered. I can’t keep blowing up her phone, not when she so clearly doesn’t want to speak to me. I know enough that if I keep pushing, it will only be worse.

Except she’d run off the other night without even giving me a chance to talk things through with her, sprinting into a perfectly timed cab—it was almost like a scene out of a movie.

I swivel in my chair, thinking.

There has to be a way.

I told Verity that I’d make her mine, that she would be my girlfriend, and I am determined to keep that promise. I won’t just let her go, not without a fight. Things between us won’t endbefore they even have a chance to start. I know in my gut that there is a connection between us that is different, and I won’t lose that.

Putting in the work to win over Verity isn’t a chore. In fact, I’d loved the chase and the challenge she’d given me with her four-date tease. It made the taste of her lips all the more sweet.

The memory is ingrained in my brain. The feel of her hot body pressed against mine. Her fingers dancing around the hair on the nape of my neck. The little moan she made when I bit her lip. The way she arched into me, wanting more.

My cock twitches, remembering how hard I was in that moment. How much I wanted to bend her over that railing and fuck her with the city splayed out below us.

But I’d held back because when it comes to Verity, the reward of having her to myself is a prize I won’t pass up. Even if it takes me a hundred trials, I will reach the end eventually.

She might have said we are over, but the look in her eyes at that time was anything but hate. I saw the pain there, the fear, and the want. Verity pushed me away, not because she doesn’t want me, but because she is afraid of Celine.

I just need to come up with a plan, one that will banish all her worries.

I just have no clue what that is.

“Your new girlfriend works for your ex? Really, Cullen.”

My chair almost tips back at the sudden intrusion of my door swinging wide, Chloe waltzing in without a care.

Amy pokes her head in belatedly. “Mr. Ross, your sister is here.”

Clearly.

What is it with all the unannounced visitors today?

“Chlo, I’m honored you came for a visit.”

“You came to my workplace; only seemed fitting if I did the same.”

She plops down into the same chair Halston had been in not even twenty minutes ago, her hair in one of those messy buns she always wears when baking.

“Did you bring me something?”

I spot the logo on the white paper bag she carried in along with her tote.