Adrian Cole had a problem, and her name was Nadia Reyes.
She stood at the far end of the conference table, distributing quarterly reports with the efficiency of a woman who'd done it a thousand times before, her dark hair pinned back, her grey skirt hugging the curve of her hips in a way that had haunted him for fourteen months. Fourteen months, three weeks, and two days — not that he was actually counting.
She wore the ring like a warning. A modest diamond on a thin gold band, catching the fluorescent light every time she reached across the table, flashing at him like a semaphore — Taken. Unavailable. Stop staring.
But he couldn’t stop staring.
Adrian had built an empire on patience — on waiting for the right moment, the right acquisition, the right kill. He'd applied the same discipl
