Chapter 7: The Ultimatum

JULIAN

The door shuts behind her with a click and I let the silence settle around us, heavy and thick, a weapon I've honed to perfections. I don't raise my head from the schematics, I just let her stand there, let her feel the weight of this space, of my attention withheld, and I can feel her nervous energy from here, a vibration in the air that's been knocked off since she arrived, since she came from him.

Her voice cuts through the quiet, a professional cloak over that tremor she thinks she's hiding. "You wanted to see me, Mr. Sterling?"

I take a slow sip of whiskey, allowing the ice to clink, a cold, sharp sound, and then I lift my gaze; I don't glance at her face, not yet—my eyes travel down, a deliberate, slow inspection, and there it is, the evidence, the damn evidence of her afternoon; her lips are still slightly swollen, her blouse is misbuttoned, a minor detail, a whisper of chaos from that boy’s chaotic world, and a hot, possessive anger clenches in my gut. "Sit."

She does, rigid, and the scent of her hits me… not her perfume, but him, the turpentine scent of desperation on her clothes, and it takes everything I have not to react. My voice is deceptively calm, a flat lake hiding a monster. "It has been a… productive afternoon for you, hasn't it, Ava?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"Oh, I think you are," I reply, and now I let my eyes meet hers, and the connection is a live wire, a jolt of pure, unadulterated energy. "You seem like a woman who knows exactly what she wants. And exactly how to get it."

I let that hang, let her writhe on the double entendre, then strike for the throat, the professional blow, the one that I have control over. "The server logs each keystroke, each access request. This morning at 10:47 a.m., you violated security procedures, opened the Project, Folder 7B. A folder containing sensitive geological and structural analyses you have no clearance whatsoever for."

She tries to evade, to hide behind Victoria, and a smooth contempt unfurls in my chest. "Victoria?" I cut her off, my voice low, husky, and threatening. "And if Victoria had asked you to do a swan dive off the 40th floor, would you have done that as well? Do you do everything anyone asks you to?"

Her cheeks flush, a beautiful, indignant pink. "No. I make my own decisions."

"Evidently," I snap, control slipping, the real anger, the personal, damn near raw jealousy seeping through. "A decision that led you to jeopardize a billion-dollar project. A decision that then led you straight to my son's loft."

And there it is, out in the air, the one thing I really want to talk about, the one thing eating away at me from the inside out. She tries to recover it on the reports, on her moral crusade, her voice rising with a fervor that would be irritating but is instead… exhilarating. "The surveys in that file are fake! The core samples, the seismic reports—they've been altered. The earth can't support the weight of the foundation you've created. You're building a monument on sand, and you're risking hundreds of lives!"

That's it. The last thread of my control snaps. I slam my palm on the desk, the sound of it cracking out in the quiet room. "I AM AWARE OF THE GEOLOGICAL REPORTS!" The roar tears from my throat, and I see her flinch, see the warmth of my fury wash over her, and I don't care, I want her to, want her to sense the force of my anger. "I know every variable, every risk, every goddamn decimal point! My job is to manage those risks, to design around them! Not to have my best junior architect throw a tantrum and go crying about ethics to a man who can barely control his own life, let alone the subtleties of structural engineering!"

I stand, a predator unencumbered, and I move around the desk, my movements fluid, menacing; I close the gap between us until the air is thick with her scent and my rage, until I'm looming over her, forcing her to look up at me, and the control of it, of her submission to my presence, is a heady poison. "You have a choice, Ava." I'm near enough to notice the desperate thrum of her pulse in her throat. "You can be a team player. You're intelligent, you're talented. There's a place for you here, a bright future. All it requires is loyalty. Discretion." I lean in, my voice a gentle whisper meant for her ears only, a promise and a warning. "It makes you forget what you think you saw. To trust that I am in charge."

I crouch, bringing my face to her level, inches from hers; electricity snaps between us, a hum in the air, and I witness the terror in her eyes, yet also a defiance, a glint that makes me want to break her and claim her at the same time. "Or… you can pursue this stupid, righteous crusade." My voice drops to a chilly whisper. "In which case, you'll be fired before the day is over. A whispering campaign will begin tomorrow. 'Unstable.' 'Unreliable.' 'Prone to hysterics.' You'll never work in this city, or any other, again. Your name will be poison." I let that sink in, let her feel the destruction I can wreak. "And then I'll have a conversation with your mother. I'll explain to her how her gifted daughter threw it all away. How she got involved with my son… I'll show her the kind of woman you've become."

I wait for the tears, the pleas, the breakdown. It doesn't come. Her eyes sparkle, but she closes them off, and she lifts her chin, meeting my fiery gaze with a steel I didn't know she possessed. Her voice is soft, but it carries, clear and steady. "I'm nobody's enemy, Mr. Sterling. And I'm not that kind of woman you think I am." She swallows uncertainly, and I can almost taste her resolve. "But I won't be silent about a lie that can get people killed. I won't be a party to it."

The silence that follows is complete. I look at her, and something inside me alters, a tectonic plate shifting; the anger doesn't go away, it just… rearranges itself. It becomes something else, something hotter, purer. A slow, cold smile touches my lips. It's not anger. It's approval. It's fascination.

"Good." The term is a soft breath, complete with deep, icy satisfaction. She passed. She didn't crack. She's so much more than I bargained for. I rise to my full height, looking down at her not as a subordinate, but as an equal. A worthy adversary. A tasty challenge. "I was hoping you'd say that." I loosen my tie, my eyes never deviating from hers, craving the beautiful, defiant fire of her. "You have fire, Ava. Much more intriguing than obedience." I wave her off with a flick of my gaze, the game forever changed. "Now. get out of my office."