Means to an end. That was all it had been for him. The silence lengthened. I searched his eyes. There wasn’t a single word to be found in them. Finally, he gave me a faint smile. “Ms. Lane,” he said coolly, and those two words spoke volumes. He was offering me formality. Distance. A return to the way things had been, as if nothing else had ever passed between us. A façade of civility that made us able to work together when we had to. I’d be a fool not to accept it. “Barrons.” I sealed the deal. Had I ever told this enigmatic, cold man that he was my world? Had he really demanded I say it, over
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