Riley:
Logan didn’t linger long. Deals pulled at him like the tide pulls at storms—inevitable and indifferent. Before the orchestra could breathe again, he was gone, slipping through the velvet and gilt with Cade at his side. Their shoulders brushed once, like a secret handshake I wasn’t meant to know.
Left in the gilded box, the music swelled and pressed against my ribs. It felt obscene to sit there while the orchestra moved on without me. I stood and let the balcony doors take me. Cold air hit the skin behind my throat; it sharpened me and steadied the fizz of champagne that had made the world tilt. Paris lay beneath in a scatter of lights, a living thing. The city moved, and I tasted it on my tongue, sweet and dangerous.
And still it was only his face that filled me.
Cade — hands th
