The forty-fourth floor was quiet. No frantic phone calls. No threats from rival syndicates. The books were balanced, the empire was consolidated, and for the first time in history, the Steves syndicate was operating as a legitimate, untouchable global conglomerate with me sitting comfortably at the helm as Managing CFO.

I stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, wearing a tailored navy silk pantsuit that looked expensive, powerful, and entirely unyielding.

Larkin walked up behind me, stopping just a breath away. His massive frame radiated warmth, a sharp contrast to the cold glass around us.

“You know,” Larkin murmured, resting his hands gently on my hips, “when I invited you to the Solstice Gala, I expected you to stumble. I expected you to be intimidated by the monsters in that room.”

“I wasn't intimidated,” I whispered, leaning back slightly against his chest. “I realized I was the most dangerous person in the room all along.”

“You were,” Larkin agreed softly, turning me around so I was facing him. His dark eyes softened, filled with a deep, fierce reverence that no amount of power or money could ever buy. “And now you run the whole empire.”

“Not the whole empire,” I corrected with a faint, knowing smile, reaching up to rest my palm against his cheek.

“Oh?” Larkin raised an eyebrow. “What’s left?”

I pulled him down into a slow, breathless kiss that tasted of victory and absolute control.

“You,” I whispered against his lips.

And for the first time in my life, the numbers added up to a happily ever after written entirely in our own terms.