When the check came, Adrian handled it with a swift, effortless motion that brooked no argument. "A business courtesy," he said, catching her protest before it fully formed.
Once outside, the evening air had cooled. Streetlights cast long shadows on the pavement.
"I'll walk you home," he stated, his tone leaving no room for debate.
It wasn't a question. It was a declaration, a protective instinct she should have bristled at but instead found thrilling.
"It's just a few blocks," she said, but fell into step beside him.
They walked in a silence that felt charged, not empty. His presence beside her was a solid, warm force. When their arms occasionally brushed, a spark seemed to jump between them, making her skin tingle. By the time they reached the entrance to her small studio apartment above a dry cleaner, her blood was singing, and every sensible thought had been drowned out by a roaring, primal need to keep him close.
She turned to face him at the base of the stairs leading to her door. The golden light from the streetlamp caught the flecks of gold in his blue eyes, making them gleam. Her heart thundered in her chest. The invitation left her lips before her brain could intervene, breathless and bold.
"Do you want to come up?"
For a heartbeat, he looked utterly ravaged. Desire flashed across his features so raw and potent it stole the air from her lungs. His gaze dropped to her mouth, and she saw his jaw clench, a muscle ticking in his cheek. He took a half-step closer, his warmth enveloping her. She could smell the wine on his breath, mingled with his own irresistible scent. She tilted her chin up, an open challenge, waiting for him to close the distance.
He didn't.
Instead, he took a sharp, deliberate step back, putting cold night air between them. His expression shut down, the desire replaced by a wall of rigid control.
"No," he said, the word clipped and final. "I really shouldn't."
The rejection hit her sharp and cold in the pit of her stomach. The heat of embarrassment flooded her cheeks, burning away the pleasant warmth from the wine. She'd misread everything.
"Sorry," she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. "I just assumed… things were going well."
"They are." The strain in his voice was palpable, a tension that vibrated in the space between them. He dragged a hand through his dark auburn hair. "It's… complicated. I can't explain it right now. But I really have to go."
He looked at her for one more agonizing second, his eyes full of a torment she couldn't decipher, then turned and walked away with long, swift strides that felt less like a departure and more like an escape.
Riley stood frozen, watching his broad shoulders disappear into the darkness. Confusion curdled into hurt, then into a defensive, familiar anger.
What was so complicated? Was he married? Entangled? Did he have some secret life? Or was it the oldest, simplest answer of all—that she was, once again, too much? Too intense and too independent for a man to handle beyond a professional dinner?
The walk up to her empty apartment felt infinitely longer than the walk home with him. She fumbled with her keys, the taste of humiliation sharp in her mouth. She'd been ready to say yes. Yes to his help. Yes to… whatever this was simmering between them. She'd been poised on the edge of trusting him, of letting someone in for the first time since Trent had shown her how dangerous that could be.
And he'd run.
She slammed the door behind her, the sound echoing in the sparse space. Leaning back against the cool wood, she squeezed her eyes shut.
Well, that's that.
The one man who seemed to see her, together, who had the actual skills to pull her business from the brink, had bolted the moment things moved beyond a spreadsheet. Her body still hummed with the memory of his nearness, a traitorous ache that warred with the cold logic in her head.
He was gone. She was embarrassed. And she was right back where she started—alone and now officially doomed.
SIX
ADRIAN
Four days had crawled by since that perfect dinner with Riley and the catastrophic moment of cowardice outside her apartment that haunted every waking hour. Adrian sat behind the mahogany desk in his office at the pride estate as the afternoon sunlight streamed through floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked acres of protected forest. This room had always been his sanctuary—where critical decisions were forged, where he shouldered the quiet weight of acting Alpha, and where he proved again and again that leadership flowed through his veins like molten steel.
Today, the sanctuary felt more like a prison.
Every spreadsheet on his computer screen blurred into the same devastating memory. Riley standing beneath that streetlight in her blue sundress, the fabric catching the golden glow and making her skin luminous. The way she'd tilted her chin up, her brown eyes warm with wine and desire, and her lips slightly parted as she'd asked the question that had nearly shattered his control.
Do you want to come up?