AVA’S POV
"Does the 'Perfect Mrs. Carter' always work in the dark, or are you just trying to see if you can memorize a six-hundred-page merger through osmosis?"
The voice made me gasp, my pen slipping and leaving a long black streak across a graph of the Sterling family’s projected dividends. I looked up to find Adrian Cole leaning against the doorframe of my office. He looked far too relaxed for eleven o’clock at night; his tie was gone, his top button undone, and he held two steaming coffee cups like a peace offering.
"I prefer the quiet," I said, trying to steady my racing heart as I straightened my shoulders. "And it’s a complicated deal. I wanted to understand exactly why Lucas is so desperate to absorb a legacy brand like Sterling."
"Because Sterling has what Lucas can’t buy with
