The elevator chimed like a warning bell, sleek chrome doors gliding open to reveal the forty-ninth floor of Blackwood Enterprises. Aurora Lane took a deep breath and stepped out, the rhythmic click of her heels lost in the hush of glass and marble. She clutched her legal folder like a shield and reminded herself this was just another corporate assignment. Nothing personal. Nothing dangerous.
Then she saw him.
Tall, broad-shouldered, and impossible to forget.
Damien Blackwood stood near the windows, city light haloing him like a crown of fire. His tailored charcoal suit clung to his frame like a second skin, his black hair tousled in a way that looked infuriatingly effortless. His sharp profile—chiseled jaw, lips set in a line of authority—hadn't changed.
Neither had the ice in his eyes.
Her heart stuttered painfully. She hadn't seen him in nearly six years. Not since that night.
"Aurora Lane?" His voice cut across the boardroom like steel on silk. He turned, pinning her with a gaze as dark and endless as midnight. "From Carrington Legal?"
She nodded, willing her knees not to give out. "Yes, Mr. Blackwood. I'm here on behalf of Mr. Carrington for your corporate litigation case."
He nodded once. Dismissive. Unbothered. As if she were a stranger.
And to him… she was.
"Come in," he said. "We don't have time to waste."
She followed him into the conference room, every step a war against the past screaming in her blood. She remembered his lips on her skin, the way he whispered her name like a secret. The way he'd left before morning, never knowing he left more behind than just memories.
Aurora clenched her jaw and opened her folder. "I've reviewed the preliminary contracts. There are a few clauses that may raise legal risks regarding—"
"I'll be the judge of that," Damien interrupted smoothly. "I trust Carrington wouldn't send me a junior unless he believed she could handle pressure."
She bristled. "I can."
He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. "Good. Because this deal could either make Blackwood Enterprises unstoppable… or bury it."
He didn't recognize her. Of course he didn't.
But she remembered everything. Including the child waiting for her at home. A five-year-old boy with stormy gray eyes that matched Damien Blackwood's exactly.