The door clicked shut behind her, sealing them inside the private suite. Talia spun around, her back to the floor-to-ceiling windows that bathed the penthouse in a cold, silver glow. The city skyline sparkled behind her like a million watching eyes. Kian stood by the entrance, hands in his pockets, watching her like a predator who'd finally trapped his prey.
"I didn't expect you to show," she said, voice sharp as a blade. "Let alone… buy everything."
"Didn't you?" His voice was silk over steel. "You always were good at pretending."
The words stung more than she expected. She wasn't that girl anymore. She hadn't been for a long time.
"Why are you really here, Kian?"
He moved slowly toward her, every step deliberate. Controlled. Dangerous.
"I told you," he said. "I came to collect."
"Collect what? Revenge?"
His mouth twisted into something between a smirk and a snarl. "No. You." Her breath hitched.
"You don't own me," she snapped, stepping back but there was nowhere to go. The window pressed cold against her spine. "I'm not part of the deal."
"Oh, but you are," he said, stopping inches from her. His scent hit her like a memory dark musk, something sharp and spicy, and entirely too familiar.
She hated that her body remembered him. That her skin burned at his closeness. That her heart still raced.
"You're Voss property, aren't you?" he murmured. "Still carrying Daddy's debts, still trying to fix a mess you didn't create. That company was your lifeline. Now it's mine."
His eyes dropped to her mouth.
"And so are you."
Heat flashed between them like lightning behind storm clouds. Talia shoved his chest, hard, but he barely moved.
"You arrogant bastard."
"You didn't mind my arrogance when I had you moaning in the back of your father's Rolls," he said softly. "Or when you begged me not to stop."
She slapped him. The sound cracked through the room like a gunshot. But Kian only smiled.
"I've missed that fire," he whispered. "It's the only thing about you that didn't lie."
Her chest heaved. "You don't get to rewrite history. You don't get to act like the victim."
He grabbed her wrist again not rough, not gentle and pulled her close, so close she could feel the tremble in his body… or was it hers?
"You signed the document, Talia. You were the final nail in my coffin."
She looked away, throat tight. "I had no choice."
"You always had a choice." His voice dropped. "You just didn't choose me."
They stood in silence. The kind that screams. Then his fingers slid along the edge of her jaw, slow, reverent, almost cruel.
"I want to know what it cost you," he whispered. "Selling me out. Signing that contract. Sleeping at night knowing you destroyed the one man who would've bled for you." Her eyes met his wild, wet, furious.
"I died that night too, Kian," she said hoarsely. "You just didn't see the funeral."
His expression cracked just for a second. But then his lips brushed hers. Not a kiss. Not yet. Just a warning.
"You're mine now," he said, voice low. "I bought the company. I own the penthouse. I control your future. You will report to me every morning. You'll obey every command. And when I'm done breaking you—"
She kissed him.
Fury, grief, lust, it exploded between them.
Their mouths crashed, teeth clashed, bodies slammed together like magnets snapping back after years of denial. His hands found her hips, her nails raked his shoulders, and the window behind her fogged from the heat that rolled off them in waves.
He pinned her there, thigh between hers, his breath ragged against her throat.
"This isn't over," she gasped.
"No," he growled. "It's just beginning."
Then the door burst open.
Talia shoved him back as a tall woman entered stunning, icy, a diamond necklace hanging from her throat like a leash.
"Sorry," the woman said coolly. "I didn't realize your newest toy came with baggage."
Talia froze.
Kian's jaw flexed, but his eyes never left Talia's.
"I'll call you when I want you," he said to the woman, without emotion.
She raised a perfectly sculpted brow. "Right. Don't take too long. I bite."
She left, slamming the door behind her. Talia turned to him, shaking.
"You're still the same. Using women. Using power. Breaking people just because you can."
"No," he said. "I'm worse."
Then he leaned in close, lips brushing her temple.
"And I'm going to make you beg to be broken."