The bedroom was quiet, but my head wasn’t.
I lay half-sprawled across the sheets, chest bare to the thin slice of city light cutting through the room. The skyline burned in cold lines of white and blue, the kind of light that made everything look sharper, crueler. I could still taste her from earlier, the kiss she’d thrown at me like a dare and walked away from as if it hadn’t detonated in my chest.
If I ever choose to be with you, Carter… it won’t be because of your f*****g money.
The words echoed like a strike across my jaw. I’d stood in courtrooms that tried to gut me and never felt it like this. I’d stared down men with knives hidden in smiles and never felt it like this. Amber’s voice had weight, the kind that slid under armor where steel couldn’t reach. It pissed me off. It turned
