Derek sauntered past me, allowing a smirk to curl up on one side of his mouth. "Always a pleasure, Emily," he said, his eyes lingering on me in that same, annoyingly familiar way.

I held back an eye-roll. "Derek." A beat. "Goodbye."

Once he was gone, the weight of the room settled heavily, almost tangibly, around Adrian. He continued to brood by the window, lost in the rain-swept panorama of Seattle's skyline.

Adrian Blackstone. Even when troubled, the man was striking. The ...