The next morning, Kai didn't ask where Ava had been. He didn't need to.
Instead, he poured her coffee. Dark roast. No sugar. Just the way she liked it.
"Did you sleep well?" he asked, not looking at her.
She took the cup from him with a tight smile. "Like a queen."
He nodded, eyes unreadable. "Good. You'll need the energy."
Ava raised an eyebrow. "For what?"
"Tonight, we're attending the Helix Gala."
The Helix Gala was the most exclusive tech and business event of the year. Billionaires, politicians, innovators—it was where deals were made and secrets buried. Being seen there with Kai wasn't just status. It was declaration.
Ava turned to him, coffee forgotten. "Is this for optics?"
Kai stepped closer. "This is for control."
---
That evening, the gala was held in a converted observatory on the city's highest hill. Glass walls, starlit ceilings, violins, and champagne. Ava wore midnight blue silk that shimmered with each step. Kai wore black on black, a storm cloaked in elegance.
They turned heads.
Together, they looked like sin dressed in gold.
But beneath the glamour, tension simmered.
Lucien was there.
So was the woman in crimson lace from the Masquerade.
"You do like drama," Ava muttered as Kai guided her into the crowd.
He smirked. "Only when I can control it."
For hours, they mingled. Smiles like blades. Conversations sharp with subtext. Ava noticed how women clung to Kai's arm, how he allowed it—until he looked at her.
And when Lucien pulled her in for a kiss on the cheek, Kai's jaw twitched.
Jealousy.
A rare, dangerous thing on him.
Later, in the shadow of the rooftop garden, he pinned her against a pillar.
"You enjoyed that? Letting him touch you?"
She didn't flinch. "Did you enjoy every woman who pawed you tonight?"
His hands gripped her waist. "Don't play games you can't win."
She wrapped a leg around his. "I already did."
They kissed—hard, messy. Teeth clashed. Tongues warred.
"Say it," he growled against her throat.
"Say what?"
"That you're mine."
She smiled. "Make me."
And right there, in the velvet dark of a billion-dollar gala, he did.
---
They returned to his penthouse at midnight, breathless and drunk on each other.
He carried her to the bed. Laid her down like a precious, dangerous thing.
"Tell me the truth," she said as he undressed her. "Are you afraid of me?"
He paused.
Then, "No. I'm afraid of what you're becoming."
She pulled him down. "Then let me become it."
What followed was feral. Passion wrapped in chains.
He tied her wrists with his tie. Held her down with his body. Worshipped every inch of her until she couldn't remember her own name. And when she begged, it wasn't for mercy.
It was for more.
Later, she lay there, throat raw, heart louder than her thoughts.
"What are we, Kai?"
He lit a cigarette, passed it to her.
"We're the fire and the fuse."
---
The next morning, Ava stood at the window, naked beneath his robe, watching the city wake.
Her phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number:
"You're being watched. Make your move soon—or someone else will."
She stared at it for a long time.
And finally, she understood.
Power didn't come from loyalty.
It came from leverage.
And she was running out of both.