Chapter 4 THE ELEVATOR TRAP

The air in the hallway was thick with the scent of lilies and old money, but all Serafina could feel was the phantom heat of Dominic's gaze on her back. She didn't look back. She didn't need to. She could feel him following her, his footsteps heavy and rhythmic against the marble-the sound of a hunter who realized his prey had turned into a predator.

She reached the bank of private elevators, her fingers trembling only slightly as she pressed the button. The gold doors slid open with a soft, expensive hiss. She stepped inside, the mirrored walls reflecting a woman she barely recognized-cold, regal, and untouchable.

She turned to press the lobby button, but a hand-large, tan, and familiar-slammed against the sensor.

Dominic Sinclair lunged into the small space just as the doors began to close. He didn't say a word. He simply reached over her shoulder and punched the 'Emergency Stop' button. The elevator lurched, a mechanical groan echoing in the shaft as they became suspended between the fourth and fifth floors.

Silence fell, heavy and suffocating.

"What do you think you're doing, Mr. Sinclair?" Serafina didn't move. She stood with her back to the corner, her arms crossed over her chest in a defensive posture that she hoped looked like boredom.

"Don't 'Mr. Sinclair' me," Dominic growled. He took a step toward her, closing the distance until the heat from his body began to melt the icy resolve she had spent six years building. He looked down at her, his eyes wild and bloodshot, searching her face as if he could peel back the layers of her skin to find the girl he had discarded. "You disappeared. You vanished into thin air like you never existed. I sent people to find you, Serafina. I spent months looking!"

"You sent people?" Serafina let out a sharp, bitter laugh that rang like glass breaking against stone. "Is that what you call it? I remember a check, Dominic. I remember a manila envelope on a wine-stained table. I remember you telling me I was a placeholder for the woman you actually loved. You didn't look for me. You looked for your conscience, and when you couldn't find it, you went back to Lydia's bed."

Dominic flinched. The hand he had placed on the wall beside her head curled into a fist. "I made a mistake. I was... the pressure from the board, the return of the only woman I thought I knew-it was a mess. But you? You come back like this? Buying up my debt? Sabotaging my legacy?"

He leaned closer, his chest nearly brushing against the silk of her gown. In the mirrored walls of the elevator, they looked like two ghosts haunting their own past. "Who are you, Serafina? Who gave you the money to build Valkyrie? Was it Vance? Is that why he's looking at you like you're his personal prize?"

The accusation stung more than she expected. Serafina looked up at him, her dark eyes flashing with a dangerous light. She reached up, her fingers grazing the silk of his tie. For a second, Dominic's breath hitched, his pupils dilating as he anticipated her touch.

Instead of a caress, she gripped the tie and pulled him down until their noses were inches apart. "I built this empire on the ashes of the heart you broke, Dominic. Every time I wanted to give up, I remembered your voice telling me I was nothing. I turned 'nothing' into 'everything.' And Julian Vance didn't give me a dime-he gave me the dignity you tried to steal."

Dominic's gaze dropped to her lips. In the confined space, the tension was no longer just anger; it was a violent, suffocating desire. He wanted to crush her to him, to reclaim the woman who had once looked at him with nothing but devotion. His hand moved from the wall, his fingers brushing the sensitive skin of her neck, his thumb tracing the line of her jaw.

"You're lying," he whispered, his voice dropping to a low, gravelly rasp that vibrated in her chest. "You can pretend to be a shark in the boardroom, but right now? Your heart is beating so fast I can see it. You still feel it, don't you? This... pull."

"The only thing I feel is the urge to see you on your knees, begging for a merger I will never give you," she breathed back, though her breath was shallow, her body traitorously leaning into his touch.

Outside, the elevator's alarm began to chime, a distant, annoying sound that neither of them acknowledged. Dominic leaned in, his lips hovering just a fraction of an inch above hers. "Then show me how much you hate me, Serafina. Show me."

Just as his lips were about to touch hers, Serafina's phone rang. The screen lit up with a photo of a small, dark-haired boy with a brilliant smile.

CALLING: LEO.

The sudden light felt like a bucket of ice water. Serafina shoved Dominic's chest with all her might, creating a gap between them that felt like a canyon. She fumbled for the 'Stop' button, resetting the elevator.

"We're done here, Mr. Sinclair," she said, her voice shaking as she smoothed her hair.

As the doors opened, she walked out without looking back, leaving Dominic standing in the mirrored box, his hand reaching out for a woman who was already gone.