His Love, Her Revenge

y. It mixed with the soft hum of morning traffic outside Ava's wi

ucked under her as she stirred milk into her mug. Her thoughts weren't o

on Damien

heavy with something she didn't want to name. The way he said h

broke through the

olding a cardboard tray with two lattes and a brown

errible?" she ask

ut you sounded like yo

emember te

You never do.

ke he'd done a hundred times before. Ava closed the doo

at was Jul

d an invitation, becaus

or a moment, the kind that came f

ffee before setting it down

ight with Damien went

"You think I expec

I think part of you h

d. "Then you don't know

oked at her in that way he had-se

r what I said to you

ard by the memory. The ache

'You're n

ded. "And

n Sinclair's personal assistant for nearly a decade, and Julian spent his teenage yea

ow he an

e, even back then. But they clicked, especially during the year her mother got sick. Julian w

e to take care of his younger sister and worked nights while trying to build a career in media consu

back into each other's lives-professiona

didn't

she didn'

him much," Ava said

ding. "There's not much to talk

sor

o grow up faster without some

er coffee. "We're

ce between them-h

u walk into rooms like you expect to be challenged

e I h

ow. "But who challenges yo

ent, something passed between t

buzzed, shatter

from

o 2 PM. Blackwoo

tomach

rowned. "He's really pushin

dn't a

r more-Damien's presence... or the fact

ring at a box tucked in the corner of he

a crisp suit, Ava as a little girl at a company picnic.

ing hands with

la nearly a decade ago. H

n calm. Focuse

. It was the first night she noticed Damien loo

time she felt the t

elt like

he beginning of something neith

be not