Riven sat up on his Jado steel-style gold bed, the events of yesterday circling his mind like persistent gnats. His thoughts kept returning to the financial analyst, Thira Calderon—first at the office, then later at the restaurant. He could still see her hazel eyes flashing with rage when she’d called Vela a slut, the way that single outburst had soured his initial interest in her, twisting it into something closer to contempt.

Uncouth, he thought. A filthy mouth on a woman who barely ...