Chapter 1 1

"If you leave with me tonight, Elayne, I can make sure the bridge loan for the gallery gets an extension."

Arthur Sterling's voice was a wet, heavy thing that seemed to coat Elayne's skin in oil. Under the table, his hand moved. It crawled up her knee, fingers digging into the fabric of her dress, claiming territory that wasn't his.

Elayne Baxter stared at the pristine white tablecloth of Le Bernardin. Her stomach gave a violent lurch, a physical rejection of the man sitting across from her and the situation she had been forced into. She gripped her napkin until her knuckles turned the color of bone.

"Arthur, please," she whispered, her voice tight. She tried to shift her leg away, but his grip tightened. It wasn't a caress; it was a clamp.

"Don't play hard to get, sweetheart," Arthur hissed, leaning in. The smell of stale scotch and expensive cologne wafted off him. "Your stepmother was very clear. If you walk out that door, the marshals will be at your father's gallery by morning. Do you want to see Richard in handcuffs again? Do you want to lose the last thing your mother left you?"

Elayne's breath hitched. The air in the restaurant felt too thin. She looked around, her eyes darting frantically from table to table. The maître d' caught her eye, paused, saw Arthur Sterling, and smoothy turned his back.

No one was coming. In New York, the taint of financial ruin was a disease, and Elayne Baxter was contagious.

Panic began to rise in her throat, tasting like bile. She was going to throw up. She was going to scream. She was trapped in a velvet booth with a predator, and the walls were closing in.

Then, the air in the room shifted.

It wasn't a sound. It was a sudden, vacuum-like silence near the entrance.

Elayne looked up.

A phalanx of men in dark suits moved through the dining room like a storm front. In the center of them walked a man who didn't need to rush. He was tall, wearing a suit that cost more than her father's current debt, and his face was a mask of bored, lethal indifference.

Arthur's hand froze on her leg. His eyes widened, the arrogance draining out of them to be replaced by a stark, naked fear.

"Kirk," Arthur breathed.

Elayne followed his gaze. Gunnar Kirk. The "Butcher of Wall Street." The man who dismantled companies for sport. The same man whose name had been plastered across the Financial Times for weeks, the subject of a relentless SEC investigation that had the city holding its breath.

A desperate, insane idea sparked in the terrified chaos of her mind. Fear could only be fought with greater fear.

She didn't think. If she thought, she would freeze.

Elayne stood up abruptly. Her hand jerked, knocking over her wine glass. The dark red liquid splashed across the tablecloth and onto Arthur's lap.

"Shit!" Arthur yelped, jumping up, batting at his wet trousers.

Elayne didn't apologize. She was already moving. She stepped into the aisle, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. She walked fast, her heels sinking into the plush carpet, straight toward the bar where the dark suits were converging.

A bodyguard stepped in her path, a wall of muscle.

"Honey!" Elayne shouted. Her voice was high, breathless, fake.

The bodyguard blinked, hesitating for a fraction of a second.

That was all she needed. Elayne slipped past him. She reached the tall man in the center.

Gunnar Kirk turned. His eyes were the color of glacial ice, cold and unreadable. He looked down at her, his expression not even registering surprise, just a mild, dangerous curiosity.

Elayne didn't give him a chance to speak. She didn't give him a chance to kill her.

She rose on her tiptoes, grabbed the lapels of his jacket with trembling hands, and pulled him down.

She pressed her lips to his.

The restaurant went silent. A collective gasp sucked the oxygen out of the room.

Elayne's eyes were squeezed shut. His lips were firm, unyielding, and cold. He didn't kiss her back. He stood there like a statue, his body hard and tense against hers.

"Help me," she breathed against his mouth, her voice barely a tremor. "Play along, and I'll get rid of the paparazzi trailing you."

She felt a muscle in his jaw tick.

Gunnar didn't push her away. His eyes flicked over her shoulder. He saw the camera lens glinting behind a potted palm. He saw Arthur Sterling, pale and shaking, frozen by the table. He saw the girl in his arms, the ruined daughter of Richard Baxter. But the Baxter name, for all its current scandal, was old money. A name that still opened doors in circles the SEC couldn't touch. An asset.

Gunnar's hand came up. It was large, warm, and heavy. He cupped the back of her head, his fingers tangling in her hair.

He didn't just play along. He took control.

He deepened the kiss, tilting her head back, possessing her mouth with a brutal, calculated efficiency. It wasn't romantic. It was a claim. It was a performance designed to dominate the room.

Flashes of light erupted. The paparazzi were getting the shot of the decade.

Arthur Sterling turned and fled toward the side exit, leaving his bill unpaid.

Gunnar broke the kiss. He released her so abruptly she almost stumbled. He looked at her, his blue eyes devoid of any warmth, wiping his mouth with a pristine white handkerchief.

He turned to the man standing just behind him.

"Cornell," Gunnar said, his voice a low rumble that vibrated in Elayne's chest. "Find out which bankrupt family she belongs to. Then put her in the car."

Elayne stood frozen, her lips throbbing, as two security guards stepped forward to flank her. She had escaped the wolf, only to throw herself at the dragon.