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I touched her.

I forgot where we were.

No.

That’s way too generous.

I didn’t forget.

I ignored it.

Because I was hard for her. Because I wanted her. Because when she’s near me, my brain goes on hiatus and all I want is to bury myself in her until the house, the family, the blood, the legacy, the obligation, the rot… All of it vanishes.

But it never vanishes.

It only waits until I open my eyes.

I drag my boxers back on. Then my pants.

My belt lies somewhere on the floor near the end of the bed. I see it. Register it. Don’t pick it up.

Shirt.

Buttons.

“Nathaniel.” Ella’s voice is sharper now. “Talk to me.”

I look at her.

Mistake.

She’s beautiful. Fucking beautiful. But she’s also proof. Anyone who looks at her will know what we just did.

I want to reach for her again. I can’t think straight around her.

I think about fucking her whenever she’s near me.

Hell, I think about fucking her when she isn’t.

In meetings. In the car. In my office with blueprints spread out in front of me and my father’s voice in my ear. In the middle of a chess game with Cain, Ella Hart is still on my mind.

She has infected my concentration.

And now everyone in my family—most of all my father and younger brother—will know it.

I shove my arms into my jacket.

“If that camera is active, there’s footage,” I say.

Ella widens her eyes. “If?”

His jaw tenses. “It is active.”

“You don’t know that.”

I look back at the camera. No blinking light. But Vexley cameras don’t always announce themselves.

“I wasn’t thinking,” I say.