Morning sunlight streamed across the penthouse windows, spilling gold across the marble floor. For a moment, Justina Ashes allowed herself to believe the world outside didn’t exist that the whispers, the betrayals, and the danger that shadowed them had dissolved into the light.

Carson Wills was already awake. She could sense him before she saw him, the faint rustle of fabric, the smell of his cologne, the quiet weight of someone thinking too hard about something he couldn’t say aloud.

When ...