But here, in the confines of my study, the space where Isabella and I had consummated our Mate bond, I couldn’t pretend.
Selene’s hand started sliding lower, from my chest to my stomach, then to my waist. When her fingers grazed my belt, I caught her wrist.
“What the hell are you doing?” I snarled.
Selene’s hand froze. Her face went pale, eyes widening.
“I-I…” She stumbled over her words. “You looked stressed. And with how hard you’ve been working lately, I thought…I wanted to help take your stress away. Make you feel good.”
“And who told you I wanted that?” I said through gritted teeth, releasing her wrist. The tone of my voice made her stumble backward as if I’d physically shoved her.
“Dimitri,” she whined, her bottom lip jutting out in a pout that probably worked on other men. “You haven’t so much as kissed me on the cheek since we announced our engagement. You don’t touch me. You barely look at me.” Her voice took on a wounded quality. “Don’t I appeal to you at all?”
No. You repulse me. Every cell in my body rejects you because you’re not her.
I grabbed the vodka glass and drained it in one swallow, then set it down on the desk with more force than necessary.
“Tell my mother I’ve turned in for the night,” I said, moving past Selene toward the door. “I have early meetings tomorrow.”
If the days were torture,the nights were infinitely worse.
My eyes snapped open for the fifth night in a row. I was drenched in sweat. The sheets beneath me were soaked.
I’d been dreaming about her again.
I knew falling back to sleep again would be an impossible task, so I sat up and went to the one place that offered me some sort of comfort. Isabella’s room.
The room was completely empty, the curtains gone, even herbookshelves cleared. My mother had made sure she stripped the room bare of anything Isabella-related.
Except for the bed.
The sheets were fresh, but the frame was the same one she’d slept in. I lowered myself onto it, clutching her hair tie as I let my eyes flutter closed and allowed my memories to take me back to that night in my study when she’d given herself to me.
The vibration of my phone snapped me back to the present, and I opened my eyes to read the notification from Edmund.
Edmund: Need to see you. Urgent.
I glanced at the time. It was 5:04 a.m. Edmund never texted this early unless it was serious.
By the time I reached the office, the sun was a faint smear over the city. Edmund was already in my office waiting for me. He didn’t speak until I settled into my chair.
He scanned my face for a moment. I’d informed him about Capper’s latest findings, which were nothing, just the night before when he’d asked.
“I’m sorry about Isabella,” he said quietly. “Not just because I’d promised your father I’d protect her, but I could see how much she meant to you, how much you both loved each other even when you tried to hide it.”
I passed Edmund a tight smile but said nothing.
“But that’s not why I came.” Then he pulled out a file from his briefcase and passed it to me.
“Something’s wrong,” he said. “Ethan Thorpe just made a move on Crescent Tech.”
I froze, my mind racing.
Crescent Tech. One of Ravencrest's smaller subsidiaries, barely worth twenty million on paper. Most people didn't even know we owned it.
But I knew something most people didn't: buried in Crescent Tech's charter was a clause stating that any majority shareholder automatically gained a seat on Ravencrest Global's board of directors.
My father had put that clause in place decades ago asa failsafe, a way to reward loyal investors with a voice in company decisions. Only three people knew about it: my father, Edmund, and me.