REJECT ME NOW, I DARE YOU!

Collision

*RILEY HARRINGTON'S POV*

Voss HQ didn’t look like a fashion house.

It looked like a war room.

Glass walls, cold lighting, people moving fast with tape measures and phones glued to their ears. No champagne towers. No cameras. Just work.

I liked it immediately.

“Riley!” A woman with bright red hair and a clipboard rushed toward me the second I walked in. “I’m Lena. I’m handling your fitting. You’re on time. Good. We don’t like late at Voss.”

She didn’t ask about the viral video or look at me like I was broken. She just handed me a garment bag and pointed to a dressing room.

“Try this. Marcus wants to see how it moves on you.”

The dress inside was black silk, sharp lines, slit up the thigh, backless. Nothing like the safe, soft things Wilden used to say were ‘more me.’

I slipped into it, and for the first time in years, I looked in the mirror and saw _me_. Not someone’s fiancée. Not someone’s secret.

Just Riley.

“Okay, let’s see it,” Lena said, clapping twice.

I stepped out.

The room went quiet for half a second.

Then I heard it.

“Riley?”

My blood froze.

I turned slowly, and there he was.

Ethan Cole.

Wilden’s former head designer. The guy who quit Luxe six months ago after a blowout with Wilden.

He was standing by the design table, holding a sketch, staring at me like he’d seen a ghost.

“Ethan,” I said. My voice came out steadier than I felt.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, walking toward me. His eyes ran over the dress, then back to my face. “You look… different.”

“Different good or different ‘you should be home’?” I crossed my arms. Old habits die hard.

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Different alive.”

Lena cleared her throat. “Ethan, you’re interrupting. This is my model.”

“Your model?” He looked at her, then back at me. “Riley was Wilden’s—”

“Riley is Voss’s now,” Lena cut in smoothly. “And she’s opening our Milan show. So if you don’t mind—”

Ethan held up his hands. “Fine. I get it. Congratulations, Riley.”

He didn’t sound mad. He sounded… proud. And a little sad.

“Word of advice,” he said quietly as he passed me. “Don’t let him ruin this for you. He tried with me. Don’t let him try with you.”

Before I could answer, Marcus Voss walked in.

Tall, early forties, sharp suit, sharp eyes. He looked me up and down once and nodded.

“It fits. Good. We start rehearsals tomorrow.”

Marcus’s eyes flicked to Ethan. “You’re still here, Cole?”

“Just leaving,” Ethan said. He gave me one last look. “Break a leg, Riley. Not literally. Milan hates that.”

Marcus stepped closer. “Listen, Riley. Whatever’s going on between you and Luxe, we don’t care. We care that you can walk, you can sell a look, and you don’t break under pressure. Can you do that?”

I straightened my spine.

“I didn’t faint for him,” I said. “I fainted because I let him make me small. That’s not happening again.”

Marcus smiled. Just a little.

“Good. Because Milan doesn’t want small.”

---

*WILDEN DON WULFRIC'S POV*

My phone buzzed.

It was a photo.

Riley. In a black dress that looked like it was made for war. Standing next to Marcus Voss.

Caption: Voss Exclusive. Milan Opening Look. #New Face #NoMoreSecrets

I threw the phone across the room.

Briana picked it up, scrolling. Her face went tight.

“She’s with Voss?” she said. “She’s opening for them?”

I didn’t answer.

Because I knew what this meant.

Riley wasn’t coming back.

And for the first time since I met her, I didn’t know how to make her.