"He dumped the girl who funded his future—until the most feared man in New York walked in to collect her."

Ava sat wrapped in an oversized silk bathrobe on the edge of a plush sectional sofa, a mug of steaming chamomile tea held between her hands. Across the room, Julian stood by the wet bar, pouring two fingers of amber bourbon into a crystal glass.

“Your shoes are ruined,” Julian noted quietly, nodding toward the wet black heels sitting by the entryway.

“They were twenty-dollar pumps from DSW anyway,” Ava replied, staring down into her tea. “Though I admit, walking through the lobby barefoot while wearing a two-thousand-dollar cashmere coat felt a little surreal.”

Julian walked over, handing her a fresh glass of warm water before sitting down on the coffee table directly in front of her. His dark eyes searched her face with quiet intensity. “You’re still thinking about what he said.”

“I’m thinking about how stupid I was,” Ava confessed, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Four years, Julian. I gave him four years of my life. I worked double shifts at the coffee shop and coded medical databases until my eyes bled so he could pass his bar exams and get hired at Sterling & Croft. And the second he got a corner office and a six-figure salary, he looked at me like I was an expired coupon.”

“People like Damian Cross don’t know how to love,” Julian said, his voice flat and absolute. “They only know how to consume. He needed a ladder to climb out of mediocrity, and once he reached the top, he kicked it away so no one would remember how he got there.”

“And now?” Ava looked up, meeting his gaze. “What happens now? You publicly called me your fiancée in a room full of New York’s elite and threatened a major real estate family. The gossip columns will have our pictures by morning.”

Julian smiled—a slow, dangerous curve of his lips that held zero warmth for his enemies. “Let them look. For six months, I’ve been trying to convince you to let me announce our engagement properly. You wanted to wait until your event planning career took off independently. But after tonight? The gloves are off.”

“What are you planning?” Ava asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

“Damian thinks he’s invincible because he landed a junior partnership at Sterling & Croft and hooked up with a Langford heiress,” Julian said, setting his bourbon down. “He has no idea that Sterling & Croft’s primary corporate client is Vance Ventures. And he certainly doesn't know that Victoria’s father has been embezzling from their family trust to cover bad stock options.”