Stevie-Lou’s POV

The elevator doors slid open with a soft ding, and I stepped out into a silence that felt too full. Like the air in the penthouse had learned how to listen. It wrapped around me, heavy with the kind of stillness that could hear the racing of my heart.

Smith walked a few steps ahead, sharp-shouldered and unreadable as always. The same man who had an entire boardroom of executives holding their breath with just one look. But now… I could see it…the slight tension in his neck, the flex of his jaw. A man used to being in control, fighting the fact that something about me had...