PRESENT DAY
Ryker
The memory still lingered. Like a slow-burning echo behind my eyes, I could see it, feel it. Her skin, her breath, the way she whispered my name like it meant something. But now it was gone. The flashback faded like smoke, and I was standing in the present, watching her from across the office floor.
Zerah.
She stood there, oblivious to the storm unraveling inside me, organizing files with a level of focus I envied.
I hated that my gaze lingered.
I hated that I was standing here like some schoolboy too frozen to speak to a woman in his class.
I was her boss, damn it. I owned this building, every inch of it. I could snap my fingers and have her in my office in seconds. I could order her to leave. To explain herself. To never wear her hair like that again. But none o
