The office lights were dimmed low when I walked in. The city whispered below us in flickering halos of neon. The hush of night felt like an accomplice, as I crossed into his domain with only the faint hum of the air conditioning beyond us.

Kyl stood behind me as usual, his scent silent but unmistakable—cedar mixed with something darker: steel, musk, promise. The file of my edits lay open on his conference table where I’d been summoned.

I circled the glass perimeter in my heels, my ...