The Mean Man Cade Vane's hand pinned my wrist and then my jaw to the boardroom glass after the last associate left, and the merger folder was the only soft thing in the room. Silk blouse. His ring — wedding-less, cruel — scraped my collarbone. He smelled like winter wool and a musk I had spent five years pretending I forgot. "You're nothing to me, Avery." He said it like a budget cut. His body said the opposite, heat slamming mine, thigh crowding my skirt against the table edge. "Move." My breath shook. "This is still an office." "Ask nicely." His thumb pressed my lower lip. "You think you can run from this? You already did." Lace under silk caught on his knuckle when he flattened his palm on my ribs. No child in this room. No speech about paternity. Just a man who had rejected me in daylight pinning me after hours. "I have a life you don't get to audit." "I have a mouth you used to bite." He leaned until there was no air, cedar and anger. "Look at me." I looked. I hated the ache. I hated how soaked the silk felt where his belt buckle kissed my stomach. The skyline blinked. I counted his pulse at my jaw because I needed a number that wasn't five years. "If you kiss me," I said, "it doesn't make the sentence unsaid." "I'm not unsaying it." His mouth hovered. "I'm making sure you don't walk out like it didn't land in your body." He covered me — chest to chest, zero distance, my back to glass, his breath in my mouth without quite taking it. I couldn't step back. The table edge bit my thighs. His heat was a . He Ch1 hold: his jaw-pin stayed, silk and leather and a ring on my collarbone, breath scorching, no entry, only the almost. I counted the space between his mouth and mine. Wardrobe heat. Pulse. A belt buckle kissing skin I refused to offer in an ad. He said the fight in one line and put the rest in his hand on my wrist. I could not step back. Zero distance. My lip caught his thumb. Rain or oak or iron — the room shrank to scent and heat. I stayed clothed. He stayed cruel. That was the landing page the body understood. Someone else could have the lore later. Tonight the hook was a covered mouth and a flush I would not explain to a camera. Hold 1: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 2: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 3: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 4: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 5: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 6: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 7: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 8: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 9: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 10: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 11: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 12: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 13: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 14: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 15: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 16: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 17: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 18: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 19: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 20: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 21: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 22: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. Hold 23: jaw, wrist, silk, ring, breath, a flush at zero distance, his mouth almost on mine, I couldn't step, still clothed. crisis. Far down the hall a small voice called Mommy, not in here, not in his hands. I locked that sound out of this inch. "Cade." It was a warning and a want. "Don't you dare disappear again." His lips brushed mine and stopped, a cliff made of almost. That was Ch1. Ad landing. Body first. The rest of the war could find the corridor. The room held. Skin stayed too hot. Breath stayed scorching. His wrist stayed on my jaw. Leather and cedar stayed in my mouth. Silk dragged.