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When I bend down to rub between his ears, some of the animosity coursing through me dissipates.

“Just keep an eye on her today,” I say before rising to my full height.

Titus tilts his head like I’m talking to him and an almost smile breaks across my face.

I look over my shoulder to catch Victor’s nod.

“And Victor?”

An expectant hike of his brows is my only response.

“Give her the fucking phone.”

“Yes, sir.”

My dayat the office passes the way I prefer it: busy. Busy is easy since I was out of town for the past two days trying to tie up loose ends. Nonstop meetings and calls block up my calendar until a lull at four p.m.

And just when I think I have a second to catch up on a custom booking request, Victor’s stand-in for the week dips his head in my office and tells me I have a visitor.

“Who?”

“He says you know each other from The Society?”

The uncertainty in his voice makes me pinch the bridge of my nose. Regardless of how cagey a visitor is, Victor would have their whole life in a folder on my desk before their footsteps ever darkened my door.

But he isn’t Victor. I don’t know his name because he won’t be here beyond tomorrow. So, I incline my head and wait for the visitor to appear in front of me.

A cloud of crimson crowds my doorway before I can focus my eyes on who it is.

“Adonis, always good to see you.”

That voice. That fucking stuffy, conceited voice. Percy Peterson. A name as pussy as the man who carries it.

For the first time today, I regret telling Victor to stay home with Delilah. Because what the fuck is this?

“Why are you here?”

“I can’t check in on an old friend?”

We were never friends. The closest we got was an alliance between our companies a few years back. His yachting company was the perfect upsell for my private jet clients and vice versa. But that connection was severed before a month could pass. He said it was my arrogance. I said it was his penchant for proving that sometimes the universe did make mistakes.

Either way, I didn’t want this man anywhere near me.

“Speak your piece or get the fuck out my office, Percy.”

He tilts his head as a cocky smile lifts his lips. “We didn’t get to speak at the auction a few nights ago.”

“And you went out of your way to fix that?”

The plastic smile on his face disappears the second my office door clicks behind him.

“Fine. I won’t waste any more of your time. You have something that belongs to me.”

“There’s nothing you have that I would ever want, Percy. Let alone steal.”

He laughs lowly, unbuttoning his bright red suit jacket before taking an unwelcome seat in the chair facing my desk. “I used to think the same thing until you walked out of the auction with sweet Delilah, even though you didn’t place a single bid on her the whole night.”

I don’t speak, but my hand twitches to lock around his neck at the way he says her name.