The first time Carson Wills saw Seraphine Vale, she wasn’t walking into his building, she was already inside it.

She sat at the head of the boardroom table as though it belonged to her. The glass walls shimmered behind her, the night city reflecting her shape like an omen. She wore white not pure but weaponized, a shade that made her presence impossible to ignore.

“Carson,” she said when he entered, her voice silk wrapped around steel. “You took your time.”

He paused at the threshold, ...