Monday arrived with storm clouds curling over the city like bruises in the sky.
Zoe was already at her desk when the thunder rumbled—a low, uneasy growl that matched the tension coiling in her spine. She hadn't slept well. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw him. Heard his voice. Felt the phantom weight of that gaze.
Dominic Wolfe didn't just look at you.
He unraveled you.
And now that she knew he remembered her—had been thinking about her—it was like a fault line had cracked open under her feet.
"You okay?" Mila, her cubicle mate, whispered over the partition.
Zoe startled. "Yeah. Just tired."
"Or haunted," Mila teased. "You look like someone who saw a ghost in the break room."
Zoe smiled faintly. Close enough.
Across the city in the towering glass corner of Wolfe Enterprises, Dominic wasn't doing much better.
He'd tried to write her off. He'd tried to drown her out with numbers, deadlines, quarterly reports. But every time he looked out over the skyline, he remembered how her voice had curled around a room like heat. How her eyes met his without flinching.
He hated it.
He hated that something so human had found a way past his iron walls.
"You're distracted," said Veronica Ames, his COO, setting a folder on the table during their morning meeting.
"I'm focused," he replied without looking up.
"No, you're thinking. Big difference."
Dominic looked at her, one brow raised.
Veronica sighed. "Whatever this is—kill it fast. Distractions cost more than mergers."
She left before he could reply, her heels clicking like gunshots across the marble.
He hated that she was right.
Later that afternoon, Zoe was summoned to the 45th floor.
Not by Dominic.
By HR.
Her stomach twisted. She'd been careful—so careful. But maybe even proximity to someone like Wolfe came with consequences.
The HR director, Ms. Greer, gestured to a chair.
"We're making some structural changes in the marketing department," she began, flipping through papers.
Zoe tried to keep her voice steady. "Am I being let go?"
Greer blinked. "No. Promoted."
Zoe blinked back.
"You've been reassigned to the Corporate Strategy team. Starting tomorrow. You'll be shadowing the department head on campaign alignment."
"Why me?" Zoe asked before she could stop herself.
Greer looked at her. "Because someone upstairs noticed you."
The words echoed in her chest like footsteps down a long hallway.
That night, Dominic stood alone in his office, watching the city swallow the rain.
He hadn't spoken to her again. He didn't plan to.
But she was moving closer now—inside his world. Closer to the fire.
And he knew what came next.
Every empire has its weakness. Every king, his undoing.
He just never thought his would walk in wearing sneakers and a T-shirt that said Chaos Coordinator.