A knock sounded on Ava’s door as she touched up the foundation on her cheek. She startled, dropping the makeup sponge in the sink. Her building was secure, and she hadn’t given Isaac any codes. They also had a doorman who would have called up before he allowed anyone into the elevator—a thought that made her realize she hadn’t given the doorman Isaac’s name like she should have. She couldn’t have. She didn’t know it. They’d never gotten around to last names. Seemed crazy, considering all the intimacy they’d shared.

She smiled at the realization that last names didn’t enter into their attraction and affection for each other. And after a lifetime of being part of the Jennings’ steel monarchy, Ava found that utterly freeing.

Ava took one last look in the mirror and started for the front door. When she glanced through the peephole, her stomach dropped. Matthew stood on the other side.

Her shoulders fell, her stomach knotted, and she squeezed her eyes closed on a soft but emphatic “Fuck.”

Ava took a deep breath, blew it out, and steeled herself. Then opened the door a few inches and demanded, “What?”

He looked up from the floor and scanned her dress with surprise. Then a smile lifted his mouth. “You are going tonight. Fantastic. I’ve got a taxi waiting downstairs. We can talk in the cab.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” He looked good. Great, actually. His tux sharp and crisp, his hair gelled, his jaw clean. But he wasn’t the least bit attractive to Ava. In fact, he disgusted her. “We’re not going anywhere together, ever again.”

She started to close the door, then thought about what he’d said and jerked it open again. “Where in the hell are you going?”

“The IEA awards. Jennings Steel is—”

“I know. But you’re not part of Jennings Steel anymore.”

“Oh, but I am.” His mouth curved in an annoyingly superior smile. “Your father hired me back.”

Ava’s jaw unhinged. Her brain buckled. “He did not.”

“Not to the job you fired me from, no. I understand I need to earn back your father’s trust.” Matthew gave a one-shouldered shrug. “I hoped that if you saw your father taking another chance on me, maybe you could too. I know I made a mistake. I was stupid, and I swear it won’t happen again. I’m ready to prove it to you, Ava.”

“I… That’s… You can’t…” she stuttered, unable to formulate an answer to that ridiculous underestimation of both the problem and an attempt at a solution. “I will never trust you again. If my father hired you back after such a disgusting display of character, he deserves what he gets. As for me, I never want to see you again.”

She slammed the door and walked to the balcony. With fury vibrating through her, Ava wrapped her hands around the railing and squeezed until her fingers went numb. “That bastard.”

Her shoulder blades pinched with the stab of the knife in her back. No one in her family had bothered to tell her they’d rehired Matthew. No one had contacted her about the event. No one had called to check on her after she’d walked out. Not even her mother.

Ava had never felt so insignificant. So betrayed. Just when she thought it couldn’t get worse. “Sonofafuckingbitch.”

This bullshit only amplified her feelings for Isaac. He made her feel the way someone who cared about her should make her feel. His dedication to his own family reinforced her belief of how a family should act.

Ava released her anger on a deep breath and took a cleansing lungful of the warm air while she soaked in the city’s twinkling lights. Isaac had brought great perspective to her life in such a short amount of time. Even though she didn’t know where this new path would lead, she felt strong about following it because Isaac believed in her. Isaac built her up, where Matthew tore her down. She could see now that her values had never been aligned with her family’s. She’d only followed the path that had been expected of her.

Ava returned to the bathroom. She rinsed her sponge, cleared the countertop, and looked in the mirror one last time. She might not need her family, but she still wished they were what she’d always wanted. What she’d been pretending they were all these years. The same way they’d been pretending.

Her phone chimed, startling her out of the dark thoughts. She glanced down at the counter where she read Isaac’s message: I’m downstairs.

Ava smiled, and her belly tingled with the whisper of butterfly wings. The turmoil in her gut eased.

Be right down, she replied and checked her reflection in the mirror one more time, praying the calf-length silver-sequined dress wasn’t over the top for his father’s dinner. But he’d said black tie, so…

She slid her wallet into her clutch and made her way to the elevator. On the ride down, Ava thought of all the changes in her life over the last six weeks. For the first time, she was living for herself.

She thought of her successful interview with Tilman Steel a few days before. Then her mind drifted to a handful of interviews she had lined up with the kind of Fortune 500 companies that could offer her the future her family had stolen. When the elevator doors opened, her hope and excitement for life had been bolstered. Isaac had made her transition bearable, and he’d taught her a lot about herself in the process.

She stepped out and found him pacing the lobby. Ava had seen many men in tuxes over the years, but she had to admit, she hadn’t expected Isaac to wear one so well. It took more than a good body to give a tux real sophistication, it took practice. Not only did Isaac look absolutely mouthwatering, he also looked comfortable.

“Jesus.” His breathless voice pulled Ava from her thoughts. “You look gorgeous.”

She laughed and walked into his arms. “Handsome, you give that tux authentic swagger. Not many men can pull that off.”

He kissed her. “Ready?”

When she nodded, he took her hand and led her outside. A shiny black town car waited at the curb. Ava’s brows pulled together, and she glanced from the town car to Isaac and back to the car. A driver came around and opened the rear door.

All his past teases over her wealth flooded into her mind, and with them, guilt weighted her chest. “Isaac, you didn’t have to do this. I would have been just as comfortable on your bike.”

“You’re too gorgeous to be on the back of a bike, and parking’s always a bitch in the city.” He walked her to the car and gestured her inside. “Besides, I wanted to give you all my attention.”

Ava slid into the car with a strange feeling she couldn’t pin down. Something uneasy. A clash between the rich world she’d been battling and the simple world she’d enjoyed with Isaac.

Once settled into the car, Isaac wrapped her in his arms and kissed her. In that moment, she fell back into the warmth of their unique rhythm. But as soon as he pulled back and smiled down at her, Ava’s worlds collided again.

She slid her hands down his chest. “You look like you were born to wear a tux.”

“My parents would like to think so. Me, not so much.”

Family money? He’d never told her about it. Considering that money, family, and family money had all been common threads in their conversations, the fact that he’d neglected to mention his family’s financial status felt significant to Ava—and not in a good way.

She suddenly regretted agreeing to come. Ava didn’t want to be dragged into a life of money and expectations and judgments again. And she sure as hell didn’t want to see how pomp and circumstance changed the Isaac she knew.

“How long do we need to stay tonight?” She slipped her hand beneath his jacket and stroked his crisp white shirt. “Or, in other words, how fast can I get you out of this fancy suit and back into your worn jeans?”

The joy in his eyes slipped a little. “Still only interested in a dirty biker, huh?”

Unease pricked her chest. “Is it my imagination, or are you overly sensitive about that topic?”

He exhaled and looked out the window.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she told him. “The car, the tux, the fancy dinner, it’s fabulous. And it means a lot to me that you asked me to come. I just want you to know the money doesn’t matter to me.”

“Well, that’s good,” he said, turning back to her with an apprehensive look in his eye. “Because we’re here.”

Ava glanced out the window as the car turned into a roundabout. “That wasn’t more than a ten-minute drive.”

Before she could ask why they couldn’t have taken an Uber or walked, he slid toward the opposite side of the car. “I’ll get your door.”

He got out and rounded the back. Ava watched him with a growing weight in her stomach. Something wasn’t right. Maybe she really was only interested in the dirty biker, because suddenly, she wanted to be anywhere but here.

He opened her door and offered his hand. The gesture sparked something inside her, lighting fire to a fuse she feared led to a keg of dynamite. She’d been around wealth all her life, but it was the first time she’d ever seen Isaac in that setting, and he was clearly used to the protocols—the tux, the car, the gestures, the manners.

Memories from their time together clicked through her head in milliseconds—the moment he’d stepped into Grind and her antennae locked on to him, the cleanliness of his garage, his expectations of a receptionist, MIT, the piano.

She took his hand and stood from the car while forcing herself to shed her negative associations with wealth. So what if his family had money? He was as much a self-made man as she was a self-made woman. She could deal with that.

What she couldn’t deal with—wouldn’t deal with—was more deception.

After he closed the door, she faced him and met his eyes deliberately. “Isaac, what’s going on?”

He lifted a strand of hair out of her eyes with one finger and smiled. But his expression… He looked different. A little nervous. A little edgy. “I told you, it’s just a work dinner for my dad. I promise, we won’t stay long.”

He walked her around the car and toward the building. No, not a building, a skyscraper. A skyscraper with a wide, curved face and a tower rising from the center. She slowed, looking around for landmarks to cement her location. “Is this the Mandarin?”

“Yep.” He pulled her arm through his and quickened his step toward the entrance and a bank of glass doors.

Dread gathered in her gut. Inside, she came to a full stop and pulled on Isaac’s hand to get his attention. Once she had it, Ava demanded, “Who’s your father? What’s your last name?”

“Let’s catch the elevator,” he said, his steps quick across the lobby, pulling her along. “My mom’s waiting for us at the top.”

When the elevator doors closed and they were alone, Ava pulled from his grip and fully faced him. “I’ve been lied to enough to know when it’s happening again. Not just anyone has a work event at the Mandarin. Who is your dad? Do I know him?”

To add to her terror, Ava didn’t know where the IEA awards were being held tonight. She didn’t know where her family and Matthew would be.

Isaac took her hands, and she knew. She knew he was going to throw a curve ball out of left field. “My dad is Dominic Banks.”

She recognized the name instantly. “As in the bridge designer, Dominic Banks? As in the man getting the IEA award?”

“Yes, I—”

The keg in her gut ignited. “Isaac Banks? You’re Isaac Banks?” Her mind spun backward. “Didn’t you used to come to our house for Sunday dinners?” She pulled her hands from his and stepped back, looking him up and down, trying to assimilate this hunky grown man with that gangly, awkward kid who’d annoyed the hell out of her over a decade ago. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He lifted his hands to her arms, closing his fingers around them firmly. And he looked at her the way he had that first night—as if he was angry and irritated. As if this subject was putting him out. “Because you wanted a biker. You went to that bar for a taste of the other side of the tracks. If I’d told you who I was, you would have pushed me aside and gotten yourself into real trouble.”

Sweat broke out on her forehead. Over her palms. She broke his grip and backed to the other side of the elevator. “What is this? Some kind of game?” Confusion muddled her brain. It was true. She would have shunned him. She hadn’t wanted anything to do with anyone like Matthew. And she still didn’t. “Has this all been nothing but a game for you?”

“Maybe that first night,” he admitted. “But then you came back. You came back, and once I got a taste of you, the real you, I didn’t want to give it up. So I gave you what you were looking for, hoping you’d like what you found and want more.”

She was hyperventilating when the doors opened. Music and voices flooded in. Ava glanced toward the ballroom all dressed up for the awards ceremony she’d sworn she’d never attend, and her vision blurred. Tension squeezed her stomach, and she pressed a hand against the sudden wave of nausea.

She turned to step from the elevator. She needed to escape. Escape him and everyone at this event. She needed to find a way out. A way back to her apartment.

His hand closed on her arm, and she jerked from his touch. “Don’t. Just don’t.”

She scanned the area, searching for a bathroom, a hallway, the stairs. So many familiar faces passed in the foyer leading to the ballroom. Faces from a life she didn’t want anymore. Suddenly, she couldn’t move, couldn’t think.

“Ava.” Isaac pulled her into his arms and guided her back to the sanctuary of the elevator lobby.

Part of her, the part that had spent the last few weeks with him, wanted to bury her face against his chest. Just crawl into the warmth and bulk of his body and hide. But he was the reason she was standing right back in the middle of the prison she’d so narrowly escaped.

“Ava, I’m crazy about you.” His voice was rough in her ear. “I know I should have told you who I was when you came to the shop. But things got crazy and the next thing I knew…”

His hands stroked down her back. He kissed her temple. God help her, she didn’t want to walk away from him. But she didn’t want this life either.

Ava put a hand against his chest and stepped back. She hammered her fist against the elevator button and turned on Isaac again. “You lied to me. I could have gotten past that first night. Maybe even that day at the shop. But we were together all weekend. And again, the next weekend. Then again last week. You had so many opportunities to tell me.”

“I’m telling you now. Come meet my mom—”

“I’ve met your mom. And your dad. Even Jeremy as a kid. You knew everything about me. I knew nothing about you. You exploited that.”

“No. No, that’s not what I meant to—”

“I took you at face value, Isaac. I gave freely of myself while you lied to me.”

“I didn’t lie, Ava.”

When the elevator didn’t come, she stepped out into the foyer, searching for the stairs. She saw her father with her mother at his side. Then Matthew, laughing with what should have been previous coworkers. This was all so wrong.

She spun on Isaac and found a reflection of everything she’d walked away from. “I won’t live this way anymore. I deserve better than lies and betrayal. I’m done. With this life, with them. With you.”

She stepped past Isaac, barely holding her shit together. The room was so crowded, so loud, so hot. Her head swam with confusion as she searched for the stairs or an exit.

“There you are.” The voice at Ava’s back made her eyes close in dread. Marla Banks. “I thought I’d never find you in this madhouse. Oh, son, you look so handsome. I wish I saw you in suits and tuxes more often. Where’s Ava? I’m dying to catch up with her.”

One last time—for Marla—Ava pulled herself up, closed off the circuits shooting pain to her heart and turned.

Marla’s face lit up. “Oh, sweetheart, hello.” She came forward and drew Ava into her arms like a mother should. Like Ava’s mother wouldn’t. “I was so happy when Isaac told us you were coming.”

Ava cut a look at Isaac. His tortured expression only made her angrier.

Marla pulled back and took Ava in. “Darling, you look amazing.” Then she scanned Ava’s face, and her smile fell. “Oh, honey, are you okay? You look a little pale.”

Ava forced a pained smile. “I’m not feeling well. It’s good to see you, Marla, but I’m going to have to say good-bye. I’m afraid I’m coming down with something.”

“Oh no.” She pulled Isaac closer. “Son, you make sure she gets home safe.” To Ava, she said, “Look, here’s the elevator. Feel better sweetheart. Let’s get together soon. We’ll have the family over for dinner.”

Then she took Ava’s face in her hands and kissed her forehead.

Kissed her forehead.

Ava’s own mother had never even done that.

Tears rushed her eyes, and she blinked hard to keep them back. She managed a muttered “Thank you” and was relieved when she backed into the elevator and the doors closed.

Until she realized Isaac was still with her.

“I’m sorry, Ava,” Isaac said. “I didn’t mean—”

“You meant to do everything you did.”

“If I’d told you who I was,” he said, anger edging his voice, “you would have walked away, admit it.”

The elevator stopped, and the doors opened. For a second, the moment hung—both of them hurt and angry. Ava’s mind spun and knotted. There was no quick fix for the mess her life had become.

But no matter how confused she was, no matter how tangled her heart, she knew one thing for sure. “You’re right, Isaac. You’re not the kind of man I want.”

She stepped toward the doors, and he stopped her with a heavy hand on her arm. “You just told me in the car that the money doesn’t matter.”

Ava met his eyes, her heart tearing. “It doesn’t. The lies do. The lies, manipulation, betrayal. Those all matter.”