The office was almost empty. The fluorescent lights cast a cold, sterile glow across the polished floors, reflecting off glass walls that revealed the sprawling city skyline outside. Ava Cole sat at her desk, files scattered around her like a small fortress. She tried to focus on the quarterly report in front of her, but every few seconds, her mind wandered back to Adrian Black—the man who had turned her world upside down in just one glance.
Her fingers drummed nervously against the keyboard. She was supposed to be working. She was supposed to be professional. She was supposed to resist the magnetic pull that made her heart race whenever he was near.
But resistance, as she had learned in the last twenty-four hours, was futile.
A subtle sound made her pause—the soft click of heels against marble. Her stomach clenched. She didn't have to look up to know it was him.
"Still working late?" Adrian's voice sliced through the quiet like silk over steel.
Her pulse spiked, and she hurriedly straightened the stack of papers on her desk. "I… I have deadlines."
He leaned casually against the edge of her desk, arms crossed, one eyebrow arched. "Deadlines, huh? Interesting choice of words, considering it's only 7 PM and you're still here. Alone."
Ava swallowed, trying to steady her racing heart. "I'm… efficient."
"Efficient," he repeated, smirking. "Or avoiding me."
Her cheeks flushed. How did he make every simple sentence sound like a provocation? She looked back down at the report, pretending her concentration was unbroken, even as she felt the heat of his gaze burning into her neck.
"You know," Adrian said, stepping closer until he was uncomfortably near, "you really haven't changed at all. Still stubborn. Still impossible. Still… utterly irresistible."
Ava's hands clenched the edge of her desk. "I am not… that person anymore."
"Are you sure about that?" His voice was low, intimate, deliberate. The air between them was charged, taut, electric. Every instinct in her body screamed that she should run, but her legs refused to obey.
He leaned closer, his shadow falling across her papers, his scent—rich, sharp, intoxicating—surrounding her like a trap. "Because the way you're fidgeting… the way your pulse is betraying you… tells a very different story."
Her throat went dry. "I… I need to finish this," she said, voice barely above a whisper.
Adrian chuckled softly, a sound that made her pulse skip again. "Finish it? Or just pretend that focusing on numbers can shield you from me?"
She dared a glance at him. His gray eyes held amusement and challenge in equal measure, and a part of her—a dangerous, traitorous part—wanted to give in.
"You're impossible," she hissed.
"And yet, here you are," he murmured, brushing a finger against the corner of her desk where her hand rested. "Still resisting. Still fighting. Still… deliciously human."
The air between them thickened. Every subtle movement—the shift of his weight, the tilt of his head, the way he leaned just slightly closer—felt like a physical push against her restraint. Her rational mind screamed at her to stop, to leave, to regain control. But her body was betraying her, betraying every carefully constructed wall she had built over the years.
"Adrian, please," she whispered, barely audible. "I… I can't…"
He stopped inches from her, eyes locking onto hers with predatory precision. "Can't what, Ava? Admit that you want me? Admit that you've missed me?"
Her chest heaved, breath shallow. She shook her head, trying to clear the haze that his nearness had created. "I… I don't—"
"Liar." His voice was a soft growl now, just above a whisper, just enough to make her shiver. "You've always been a liar when it comes to me. But that's okay. I like it. I like that you can't resist me forever."
Ava's hands fisted in her lap. She wanted to retreat, to regain the control she had fought so hard for. She wanted to tell him he was cruel, infuriating, maddening—but she couldn't. Every word she opened her mouth to say was drowned by the heat radiating off him, the tension in his gaze, the impossible pull of attraction that refused to be denied.
He leaned closer still, the faint brush of his sleeve against her arm sending electricity shooting down her spine. "You're mine," he murmured, voice low, intimate, possessive. "Even if you refuse to admit it."
Her pulse hammered. Her body betrayed her with every rapid heartbeat, every shallow breath, every flicker of desire that she couldn't suppress. And just as she thought she might lose all control, the sharp ping of her email notification snapped her back to reality.
She grabbed her laptop like a lifeline, using it as an excuse to move, to breathe, to escape the tension that was suffocating her. Adrian watched, his smirk widening, eyes gleaming with victory.
"You'll be back," he murmured, almost to himself.
Ava didn't reply. She didn't have to. She knew the truth. She was caught in his orbit, tangled in a web of desire, anger, and unfinished history. And no matter how hard she tried, there was no escaping Adrian Black.
Not now. Not ever.