Page 216 of The Owner's Temptation

His answer is immediate, murmured into my mouth like a secret. “I’ve never been whole, Sienna. But when I’m with you… I forget what it feels like to be broken.”

We stay like that—just breathing, holding, existing.

Beneath us, the city pulses. Around us, the night moves.

But up here, in this moment, there is only him. Only me.

And the quiet promise that whatever comes next… we’ll face it together.

The Devil and his Angel.

SIX WEEKS LATER

The bullet wound doesn’t ache much anymore. Not unless I stretch too far or lift something the wrong way.

But the truth?

The only thing that’s been healing me is her.

Sienna.

She’s the most dangerous thing that’s ever walked into my world—and the only thing that’s ever made it feel worth surviving.

She’s not justmineanymore. She’s running shit.

Head of Crisis Management at The Black Ledger.

A role only she could fill—grace with a backbone, charm with bite. When my world catches fire, she doesn’t just put it out. She makes sure it never happened in the first place.

Blackmail. High-profile disasters.

She handles it all without flinching. And somehow, even when she’s elbow-deep in chaos, she still answers when I call.

Her line rings once.

“Lucian Vale,” she answers, voice low and lethal, pure seduction. “What can I do for you, sir?”

A growl curls in my throat. “Come to my office and make out with me.”

She huffs a laugh. “You are a walking HR violation.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Maybe…” A pause. “My meeting ends in five minutes.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

And I am.

Five minutes and twenty-eight seconds later, she walks in—black pencil skirt, cream blouse, heels I want to see pointed at the fucking ceiling. She’s got her tablet under one arm and that unreadable expression she uses when she’s about to serve me my own balls in a negotiation.

She stops in front of my desk. Cocks her head.

“You're stretching again.”

I don’t deny it. My fingers had been massaging the scar tissue under my shirt just before she walked in.

She eyes me perching her sweet ass on my desk, then hikes her heel onto my chest—slowly pressing it there with just enough pressure to make me lean back.

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