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It would be far too easy to let them trap me. Coddle me until I forget how to fend for myself.

Allow them to spoil the children they wouldn’t stop fucking me for.

I would do almost anything to be part of the family Aiden so desperately desires.

Except that.

Never that.

I grab Carter’s shirt—neatly folded on the back of the chair, of course—and slip it over my head. Without bothering to take anything else, I head for the wedge of light coming from behind the bookcase.

When I press on it, the whole thing swings open on silent hinges, like an extra-thick door. Nothing is as it seems. They’ve had the upper hand from the start.

If I don’t go now, I won’t go at all.

With one final look back, I slip through the portal and out the normal old door of what should have been my suite if anything had gone like it was supposed to this weekend.

What anyone thinks of me is the last thing on my mind as I summon the elevator, rush inside, and plunge to the lobby—my sinking stomach matching my plummeting heart.

The cement of the valet area stings my bare feet as I clutch Carter’s shirt around me.

It smells enough like him to make me afraid he’s right there, chasing me again.

But this time, I’ve managed to escape.

Or maybe my billionaires declined to chase.

Either way, the head of staff spots me and instantly waves the limo over, tucking me inside before I can cause any scandals.

The skyline blurs in my vision as tears well in my eyes and spill over.

How could the best weekend of my life also turn out to be the worst?

At least I didn’t have to suffer through a long, awkward goodbye.

I press my fingers to the window in the direction of the Centennial as we turn the corner. It fades from my view along with what could have been.

What a time to learn to think things through.

CHAPTER 16

Poppy

SIX WEEKS LATER

Gunner tosses a decadent burgundy envelope onto my desk in the back room of his club.

It’s the same color as the carpet in the hall outside Carter, Aiden, and Knox’s penthouse. Their favorite, I suppose. “Beauty” is written in stunning calligraphy on the front. I use the eraser of my mechanical pencil to shove it in my boss’s direction as if even touching the same paper my billionaires once held could cause me to abandon my better sense. “Return to senders, please.”

“They’re trying their damnedest to see you again. Most women would be running to them, not from them.” Gunner frowns as he takes a seat on the tufted leather couch nearby and Riley lays her head on his shoulder, glancing between her fiancé and me with a pinched look of concern. “They didn’t hurt you did they?”

Kane cracks his knuckles. I have no doubt he’d go after them if they did. He’s the sort of man who knows how to hide a body. Or three.

“No. Nothing like that.” I’m not trying to start some kind of alpha billionaire war.

“Then what’s the problem?” Melody approaches. She puts her arm around me, gently spinning my desk chair to face the group made up of my two best friends and Riley’s three lovers.

“Gunner was right. I’m far too impulsive.” And this time it bit me right in the butt.