Patrick’s building glints in front of me as my legs take the long walkway up to it. The large glass and steel structure is meant to intimidate and impress; he sees both clients and Hollywood types of all kinds here, and my agent has a reputation for being cutthroat but excellent.

It’s not a new deal or money that’s making me take the stairs two at a time though. It’s the fact that I know Kara is sitting in one of these conference rooms, and I’ve been away from her four days too long.

My hands tingle with the need to touch her, my heart thumps in my chest at the thought of only being seconds away from covering her mouth with mine. Now that she was mine, had fully committed to making us work, I wanted to spend every waking moment just looking at her. Seven years I’d missed out on my fill, and weekends like the one I’d just spent in Seattle were absolute torture being away from her.

And today was just another road block we were mowing down. In mere hours, the contract would be lifted. We would be engaged for real. And I wasn’t letting her out from under my hands and mouth until she said she loved me, while also begging me to let her come.

The thought has my cock twitching violently in my pants, but I stifle him as I walk into the conference room.

I’m next to her in two seconds flat, not caring about the other lawyers and Patrick’s assistant sitting around the table. “Hi, gorgeous.”

I kneel next to her, not getting a good glance at her before I devour her lips. She tastes like vanilla and cool mint, those luscious lips meeting mine, but holding back. I guess it’s because we’re in public.

Pulling back, I smile at her and press my forehead to her own. “I missed you.”

She gives me a small smile, but I can tell I’ve embarrassed her or something, so I take my seat next to her and plant a hand on her thigh.

Patrick walks in, his presence commanding everyone to sit up straighter. I’ve missed this bastard too, if not for his professionalism, then his friendship. I make a mental note to ask him to grab a drink this week.

“Hello, everyone, thank you for coming.” He sits, taking several folders out of his briefcase. “Today we are discussing the dissolving of the contract between Mr. Jacobs and Miss O’Connor. Outlined in these packets are the terms, the settlements for both parties, and there is a non-disclosure at the end of yours, Miss O’Connor.”

The coldness in the room begins to creep into the marrow of my bones, and I get a weird feeling in my gut. The packets are passed down the table, and I take the last one Patrick hands out.

“You’ll see that Miss O’Connor has already signed her portions, and has agreed to move out of the Malibu home, return the engagement ring, and cease from discussing the dissolution of this relationship. In return, she will receive the full settlement promised to her upon completion of the contract, which we are dating as today.”

Wait, what?

“Hold on …” My mind scrambles to keep up with Patrick’s words, and I turn to Kara to see her staring blankly at the paper in front of her.

Flipping through the papers, I see that everything my agent just explained is true. And that Kara has already signed it. “What the fuck is going on?”

Kara won’t look up at me, and I snatch my hand away from her thigh, betrayal pouring over my head like a cold bucket of water.

“Dean, as is stated in the contract, everything is taken care of. Kara has signed her portion, and wishes to be released from the binding legal agreement.” Patrick spells it out like I’m a five-year-old.

I take ten seconds, counting them, to get my breathing under control while the other lawyers across the table firm up that the contract in front of them is adequate. Kara still isn’t saying anything, and I can’t sense her mood.

So, this is what she wants? After all of the progress we’ve made, after we’ve forgiven each other over and over? My heart crumbles, laying like ashes in my chest cavity.

Swallowing my anger, I reason with myself. What happened in the time since I left, and now? Did Kara reconsider, did she realize she didn’t love me the way I said I loved her? Maybe that was it … maybe she realized it was too much for her and she didn’t want to give us a second go.

The man I used to be would get up right now, rage and storm around. Or do something to thoroughly fuck this up. Go out and get drunk, do something I’d regret. But our time together had not only changed Kara—I know it has even if she denies it—it had made me grow up. It seemed an impossibly short amount of time, but I’d been running around blind like a little boy, grabbing at whatever I wanted. In the past months, I’d shown restraint, put someone else’s needs ahead of my own, been truthful about my feelings.

So, in that moment, I decide I’m releasing her from her ties to me, cutting the contract, letting her go free. There is that cliché quote, you see, about loving someone and setting them free. Even though I’d brought Kara here out of my own selfish needs and fear, she’d changed me yet again. Made me a better man, the man I should have been had we stayed together. Ripping up this contract was selfless, it made no sense on my part. I wanted to bind her to me for all eternity, and instead I was giving her the option to flee.

Everything in me prayed she wouldn’t take it, but I saw that look on her face. The same stone-cold expression she’d regarded me with in our first contract meeting.

If this is was the only time we would get together again, at least I could look back and know that I’d put all of my cards on the table.

So I picked up the pen, flipped to the section Patrick had marked for me to sign.

The scratch of the pen on the dotted line sounds like multiple rounds of bullets. Straight to my heart.