The ground beneath me suddenly felt unsteady, as though the floor had been yanked away. My mouth gaped, but nothing came out. No words. No sounds.

He was here.

With fucking Sun, the most gorgeous woman on the planet.

All I could do was stare.

“This isn’t what it looks like,” Donovan said quickly. The long blink of his eyes afterward and the quiet curse under his breath told me he understood how trite and canned he sounded.

At least he was ruffled too.

It made it possible for me to speak. “It doesn’t matter what it looks like. It doesn’t matter what it actually is. I don’t even care.” And then, just to prove how catty I was, I said, “Weston’s waiting for me. So if you’ll excuse me. Nice to see you again, Sun.”

I left before he could say anything else. Before he could touch me. Before he could look at me another second with those fucking green-brown eyes that saw everything inside me. Those eyes made me confess secrets I never wanted to share. Those eyes made me be and feel and try, and how the fuck could he see all that he’d seen and still be able to look away so goddamn easily?

“Sabrina!”

My legs almost gave out when he called after me. Even now, even after this, there was a part of me that wanted to go to him. Just to talk. To show him that running wasn’t the way to handle conflict.

But I didn’t look back.

Because I didn’t want to do this here.

And I’d turned around too many times for him before.

I realized a second later that walking away was going to be a short-lived victory. As soon as I got to the front of the restaurant, I’d have to wait for the elevator. He’d catch me there.

He’d also catch Weston and Dylan, though. Maybe they could distract him. Or keep me from causing a scene.

But somehow I got lucky.

The elevator opened as I approached. Weston caught my eye, and I nodded for him to go ahead and hold it. Then I slipped in and turned around in time to see Donovan’s face just as the doors were closing.

“Was that…?” Weston asked when the car started to move.

“Yep.” I was shaking so bad, even that one word sounded tremulous.

“That was Donovan?” Apparently Dylan had seen him too. “I thought I was seeing things.”

“Donovan was here? Your Donovan?”

I glared at Audrey. “He’s not my Donovan.” Especially not now. “He was with someone else.”

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, helping me on with my coat. “That must have been a shock.”

“I didn’t even know he was in the States.” I looked down at my trembling hands. I hugged myself to still them.

“Uh,” Weston said, already sounding guilty. “I probably should have told you…”

My head snapped up. “You knew he was here?”

“When he called earlier he said he’d just landed. I told him your sister was visiting. I didn’t know he was going to be at Gaston’s. Hell, at that point, I didn’t even know we were going to be at Gaston’s.”

I stared at him incredulously. “Why didn’t you say he was here?”

“He told me not to. Remember?” A simple reminder that he’d betrayed Donovan to tell me about the phone call at all.

The sting of that snub returned on top of the newer pain. “Right. Probably because he didn’t want me to know he was in town seeing his lover, Sun.” My voice cracked. “That was sure polite of him.”

He shook his head. “Sun is not his lover.”

Yeah well, Weston also didn’t want to believe his father was corrupt or that Donovan had framed a college advisor.

I wasn’t going to argue about it. “Whatever she is, he’s with her tonight.” And not me.

Well, I didn’t want to see him either.

The elevator stopped. The doors opened, and I hustled out, half expecting to see that Donovan had run down the stairs to meet us. But the lobby was empty.

“I’ve texted my driver,” Dylan said. “We can try to make a speedy getaway, if that helps.”

“That does. Thank you.”

Outside, I pulled my coat tighter around me and paced the sidewalk, keeping one eye out for Dylan’s limo and the other eye on the doors to the building in case Donovan showed up. The cold temperature sobered me up and left me with a throbbing headache.

“Here’s the car,” Dylan said as the limo drove toward us a few short minutes later.

This was it. We’d done it. Escaped. He hadn’t even come after me. If I was disappointed about that, I wasn’t admitting it to anyone.

But no sooner had the car parked then I heard my name again.

“Sabrina, wait!”

All of us turned together to see Donovan rushing toward us from the building. Rushing toward me.

“Oh, Christ,” I mumbled. Though inside I felt a little relieved.

And also a whole lot pissed off. And hurt. So hurt.

Dylan spoke first, greeting the man who had no business looking as outrageously handsome as he did. “Donovan!”

It took Donovan a second to pull his eyes from me to the man at my side. “Dylan?” He seemed almost unable to process his friend’s presence. “I didn’t realize you were in town.”

“I’m visiting Aaron. He has the holiday weekend. I’ll be in the office tomorrow, though.” He snuck a glance at me, and I realized this banal small talk was meant to diffuse the situation.

Thank you, I mouthed silently.

Not that Donovan was deterred for long. “We can catch up tomorrow, then. If you don’t mind, though, I need to just borrow Sabrina for the rest of the evening. Don’t worry. I’ll drive her home.”

Before I knew what was happening, he had his hand on my back and was pivoting me away from everyone else.

“Hold on,” Audrey ordered. “She’s not going anywhere with you unless she says that’s what she wants.”

Donovan dropped his hand and turned to her. “You’re protective of your sister. That’s very sweet. We haven’t met, Audrey, but I work with everyone here.”

She lifted her chin and took a step forward. “I know who you are too, Donovan. Don’t try to bulldoze me.”

I bit back a proud giggle.

Donovan took a beat, and I could tell he was trying to remain calm. “Then if you know who I am, you likely also understand that I need to talk to her.”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” I barked. Which wasn’t true. I wanted to talk to him so bad I’d called him all the way in France.

“Then you’ll listen.” He shifted his focus back to my sister. “I promise to have her back to you in one piece.”

I didn’t understand why he was so insistent to talk now. Why did he care? He was already dating other women. Defending himself was needless. It wasn’t like we had a relationship to save.

But we would need to talk at some point, and before Audrey agreed it was a good idea, she’d have to approve of Donovan’s motives.

“You need to talk to her as her boss?” she asked, obviously poking at his choice to introduce himself as one of my coworkers.

“I need to talk to her as her boyfriend,” Donovan corrected.

“Whoa,” Weston said, echoing my thoughts. Audrey grinned, the traitor.

“You are not my boyfriend,” I growled, though deep down inside of me I already knew I was going to replay those words over and over again later on. Analyze them. Dissect them. Cut them up and see if there was any possible meaning to them besides as a tactic to grab my attention.

Donovan let out an impatient huff of air. “Then I need to talk to you as the guy you’ve been fucking.”

Dylan cringed visibly.

I fumed. “Not anymore. You made sure that was over when—”

“Sabrina,” Donovan interrupted, his low authoritative tone impossible to ignore. “Give Audrey the keys to your apartment and tell her you’ll meet her at home in an hour. I’m sure that you trust both Weston and Dylan to make sure she gets there safely.”

God, I hated everything about him right then. The way he’d inserted himself into my evening plans. The way he made my skin prickle and buzz. The way he made me think I might actually be someone who mattered to him.

It was too cold to continue standing on the curb arguing, and it wasn’t fair to keep everyone. I was giving in.

I met Audrey’s eyes. I didn’t have to say anything for her to know what I was asking.

“I’m fine,” she said confidently. “You should go.”

“I’ll be less than an hour,” I said, handing her my apartment key. I wasn’t sure I could keep that promise, but I made it anyway.

She shook her head, nonverbally telling me not to worry. “You have the History channel. That’s enough entertainment to last me quite a while.”

I waited until the three of them were in the back of the limo, and the door was shut. Then I took a deep breath, turned away from the curb, and stepped toward Donovan.

Donovan. Fucking Donovan in his tailored suit and five o’clock shadow.

Walking toward him was like deciding to walk through fire when I was already covered with first-degree burns. It hurt like I couldn’t describe.

But I was a girl who lived in darkness. His fire sure looked bright.

He took my arm. It was a polite gesture, and the pressure of his hand felt comforting through my coat, but I pulled away immediately.

“Don’t touch me. We can talk, but you don’t get to touch me.”

I know I didn’t imagine the flicker of pain I saw in his eyes even if he refused to acknowledge it.

“We’ll just talk then.” He gestured to his Jag, which had pulled up along the sidewalk ahead while we’d argued. “After you.”