Harper's POV:

I left before he could wake up and see the regret on my face. Maybe I could pretend it hadn't happened. Pretend it was just a dream and I hadn't let a stranger make me forget who I was.

The hotel hallway smelled like expensive cologne and leather, nothing like the cigarette motel I'd paid for with my last real money, and I moved fast because if I slowed down I'd have to think about what I'd just done. My shirt still smelled like him. My legs were shaky. I could still feel where he'd been inside me and I hated that my body wanted to go back.

When I got back to the motel, the sun was already burning through the smog and the clerk was different from last night. This one was a woman with bleached hair and nails so long they clicked against the keyboard when I asked if anyone had turned in a photo album.

"Nothing here, honey." She didn't even look up.

I went to my room and sat on the bed that smelled like old smoke and tried not to think about the bed I'd just left. The one that smelled clean. The one where a stranger had made me forget my name for a few hours.

My phone's buzzing sound distracted me.

I should have ignored it but I didn't because I was stupid and part of me still hoped maybe Connor had realized he'd made a mistake. Maybe he was calling to say he was sorry.

The screen lit up with a notification from social media.

I'd deleted social media apps two days ago but notifications still came through and when I saw the preview my stomach dropped so fast I thought I might throw up.

Connor Blake is engaged to Jenny Hart.

I opened the app before I could stop myself.

The photo loaded slow, pixel by pixel, like the universe wanted to drag out my suffering. Connor was in a sui, and Jenny in white with a ring on her finger that was bigger than the one he'd given me. They were kissing and her hand was on his chest, showing off the diamond.

The comments were already flooding in. Congratulations. You two are perfect together. About time.

I scrolled and my hands were shaking so bad the phone almost slipped.

I saw a comment that caught my attention. "Wait, wasn't he just married?" and Jenny herself had replied with a little heart emoji and the words "Sometimes you don't know what you have until you find what you've been missing."

I threw the phone across the room and it hit the wall and cracked but I didn't care because I couldn't breathe. My chest was tight and my throat was closing and I wanted to scream but nothing would come out.

He'd waited two days after I signed those papers to propose to her.

I doubled over and pressed my face into my knees and tried to remember how to breathe like a normal person but all I could see was that ring. That smile. The way he'd never looked at me like that, not even on our wedding day.

The worst part was I wasn't even surprised anymore.

I'd known. Somewhere deep down I'd known he never loved me. But seeing it like this, seeing proof that he'd moved on before I'd even left the city, made it real in a way that hurt worse than catching them in bed together.

I heard notifications on my phone from where it had landed near the bathroom door.

I crawled over and picked it up. The screen was shattered but it still worked and there were three new emails.

All rejections.

I laughed and it came out bitter and broken because of course they were rejections. Of course nothing was going to work out. Why would it? I was Harper Lane from Montana who'd never deserved any of this in the first place.

I was still reeling in my defeat when I saw a new message from a company that's popular in LA

Novare Group.

My heart jumped into my throat because I'd applied there yesterday and hadn't expected to hear back so fast. I clicked it and held my breath while it loaded.

"Dear Ms. Lane, Thank you for your application to Novare Group. We'd like to invite you for an interview tomorrow at 2pm. Please confirm your attendance. Best regards, Novare Group HR Team."

I read it twice to make sure it was real.

An interview. A real interview at a company I'd researched and knew was big, the kind of company that could actually pay me enough to change my life.

I typed back "I'll be there" so fast I almost sent it without checking for typos.

Then I opened a new tab and searched Novare Group to prepare.

The first result was a news article from three days ago. I clicked it and started reading about the owner, some guy named Hardin Wolfe who'd built the company from nothing, and the article called him ruthless and brilliant.

"Whoosh that's interesting," I mumbled, scrolling to get more information about him. There was a photo but it was blurry, taken from far away at some event, and I couldn't really see his face.

I bookmarked it and kept researching. Found their website. Looked at their recent collections. Read every article I could find.

By the time the sun started setting I knew everything there was to know about Novare Group except what the owner looked like up close.

I fell asleep on top of the covers with my laptop still open and when I woke up it was morning and my neck hurt and I had six new rejection emails.

But I also had an interview in five hours.

I showered in the tiny bathroom that barely had water pressure and put on the one professional dress I'd brought with me. Black, simple, the kind of thing that said I was serious without trying too hard.

My hair wouldn't cooperate so I pulled it back tight and my hands were still shaking when I called a cab because I couldn't afford to be late.

The building was downtown, all glass and metal, the kind of place that made you feel small just looking at it. I walked through the lobby and my heels clicked too loud against the marble and everyone looked like they belonged here except me.

The receptionist was pretty in that effortless way rich people are pretty and she smiled when I said I had an interview.

"Fourth floor. They're expecting you."

The elevator was glass too and I watched the ground disappear beneath me and tried to remember how to breathe normal.

The fourth floor opened into a waiting area with white furniture and abstract art that probably cost more than my entire life and a woman in a gray suit told me to have a seat.

I sat and my palms were sweating so I wiped them on my dress.

Five minutes passed, then the door opened and the woman in the gray suit said "Ms. Lane? He's ready for you."

I stood up and followed her down a hallway that felt like it went on forever and she knocked once before opening the door to an office that was bigger than my motel room.

"Good luck," she said, and closed the door behind me.

I turned around to face whoever was about to interview me and my entire body went cold.

He was sitting behind the desk in a black suit with his sleeves rolled up and when he looked up at me his eyes went dark with recognition.

It was him.

The man from the club. The man who'd kissed me like I mattered. The man whose bed I'd run from this morning.

And he was smiling like he'd been waiting for me.

"Well, Ms. Lane," he said softly, "we meet again."

Harper's POV:

My legs stopped working and I couldn't tell if it was from recognizing him or from the way he was looking at me like he'd won something.

"Sit down, Ms. Lane," he said, gesturing to the chair across from his desk with the same hand that had been in my hair last night, touched parts of me I was trying to forget.

I should have turned around and walked out but my body wouldn't listen because it remembered how he'd made me feel like I mattered for a few hours, and that made me angry at myself for being weak.

"You knew," I said, and my voice came out steadier than I expected. "You knew I applied here."

"I did." He leaned back in his chair and his eyes never left mine. "I was checking through an application that stood out amidst some applications we received when I saw your face, I told my team to bring you in immediately."

"Why?"

"Because I've been looking for you since you left my bed yesterday morning." He said it so casually, like he was talking about the weather and not about how I'd run away from him. "I woke up and you were gone. No note...Nothing."

My face burned hot and I wanted the floor to swallow me whole because this was worse than catching Connor with Jenny, because at least those people had pretended to care about me before they destroyed me.

"I didn't think I'd see you again," I said.

"Clearly." He stood up and walked around the desk, leaning against it so he was closer to me, close enough that I could smell that clean, expensive scent that made my stomach flip. "But here you are. Applying to my company. Walking into my office in that dress that's driving me crazy."

"Stop." The word came out sharper than I meant it to. "This is a job interview, that's all this is."

"Is it?" He tilted his head and something in his expression became more serious. "I think we both know that's not true, Harper."

Hearing my name in his mouth made my chest tight, I wished he knew it that night, whispered it against my skin while I was falling apart under him.

"I need this job," I said instead, burying my fuzzy thoughts. "I came here because I need work. Not because of... not because of what happened."

"I know you need it." His voice went softer. "I looked into you. You used to work at Blake Industries until days ago when you resigned." He paused and his jaw tightened. "Your ex-husband you told me about was Connor Blake. That's why you were at the club alone, looking like your world had ended."

My throat closed up and I couldn't breathe because how did he find out so much about me in less than forty eight hours.

"That's none of your business," I managed.

"You're right. It's not." He moved closer and I should have stepped back but I didn't because my feet were glued to the floor. "But I'm making it my business because I can't stop thinking about you. I haven't been able to think about anything else since you walked out of my suite this morning."

"You don't even know me."

"I know enough." His hand came up like he was going to touch my face and then he dropped it, like he was forcing himself not to. "I know you're smart because your portfolio is better than half the designers I have working here. And I know you're strong because you're standing here trying to pretend last night didn't happen instead of running away again."

"I'm not pretending anything," I lied.

"Yes you are." He smiled. "You're pretending you don't remember how good it was between us, pretending you don't want me to kiss you right now."

My hands were shaking so I crossed my arms to hide it. "What do you want from me?"

"I want you to work for me." He said it simply, like it was obvious. "I'm offering you the position of operations manager. You'd be overseeing all design projects, working directly with me, managing my personal team. The salary is five hundred thousand a year plus bonuses."

The number hit me like a punch to the stomach because that money is more than enough to change my entire life, to never have to worry about sleeping in cigarette motels or counting pennies for breakfast.

"That's too much," I said. "I know I have experience, but I'm not qualified for that position."

"I think you are." He crossed his arms and the movement made his shirt pull tight across his chest. "I looked at your designs, Harper. You're wasting it."

"You're only offering me this because we slept together."

"No." His voice went hard. "I'm offering you this because you're talented and I need someone like you. The fact that we slept together is... complicated. But it doesn't change that you're good at what you do."

I wanted to believe him but I couldn't because men didn't just hand out one million dollar jobs to women they'd known for one night, unless they wanted something from you, and I'd learned that lesson too many times to forget it now.

"This is a bad idea," I said.

"But you need this."

"You don't know what I need," I replied, and my voice broke on the last word because he was standing so close and my body was betraying me, leaning toward him without permission.

"Then tell me." His hand came up and this time he didn't stop himself, his fingers brushing my cheek so gently it made my eyes sting. "Tell me what you need and I'll give it to you."

Everything inside me screamed to say yes, to take the job and the money and let him touch me again because I was so tired of fighting, so tired of being alone, so tired of pretending I was strong when really I was breaking into pieces.

But I'd been here before with Connor, letting a man make me believe I was special when really I was just convenient, and I couldn't do that again no matter how much my body wanted to.

"I need..." I stepped back and his hand fell away from my face. "I need to leave."

His expression changed, went from soft to sharp. "What?"

I looked back at him and his face was tight with something that looked like frustration or maybe hurt, and I hated that I cared what he was feeling.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

I pulled the door open and his hand fell away and I walked out into the hallway without looking back because if I looked back I'd change my mind.

The elevator took forever to come and when it finally did I stepped inside and pressed the button for the lobby and watched the numbers go down while my heart hammered against my ribs.

What had I just done?

I'd walked away from thousands of dollars. From a job that could change everything. From a man who looked at me like I was something worth keeping.

The elevator doors opened and I walked through the lobby and pushed through the glass doors into the sunlight and it was too bright, too hot, too much.

I turned around and looked up at the building, at the fourth floor windows that were too high to see through, and I wondered if he was standing there watching me.

I shoved my phone in my pocket and started walking toward the street to find a cab, and I made it three steps before someone grabbed my arm.

I spun around and my heart jumped into my throat.

But it wasn't Hardin.

"Why are you fucking here?" I said to the person looking straight into my face.

Harper's POV:

Connor was standing right there in front of me and the shock on his face would have been funny if I wasn't so angry I could barely see straight.

"Harper, wait." He blinked like he thought I was some kind of ghost that shouldn't be here. "You moved to LA? Of all places? I thought you'd crawl back to your village."

He was blocking my path and I wanted to just walk past him, pretend he didn't exist, but he kept standing there with that stupid look on his face like he had any right to talk to me.

"Since you couldn't answer my question, why did you think I'll answer yours?" I pushed him out of my way and I don't know where the strength came from but I loved that I could do it, loved that he stumbled back a little. "Get out of my way Connor."

"Feisty, I love it." He laughed but it wasn't a nice laugh, it was the kind that made fun of you. "Harper you're now showing your true color huh? I knew you were always pretending to be the good one, see? It's not even up to a week, your true self is showing."

I should have kept walking the moment I pushed him but what he was saying made something hot burn in my chest because I'd done nothing, absolutely nothing but love this man, and he was still calling me names like I was the one who did something wrong.

I turned back and my fingers were already curled into fists beside me and before I could think about it my hand was moving and the sound when it hit his face echoed loud enough that people walking past us stopped to stare.

"Never in your life call me names anymore Connor." My voice came out shaking but not because I was scared, because I was so angry I could taste it. "I've put up with your foolish self for too long. Yes I went through a lot, of course when you met me I was in a bad shape, but did you know how I helped Blake Industries become what it is today? And do you think the stupid president position James promoted you to, I didn't beg your father to do that?"

I almost called him Dad but I couldn't anymore, nobody in that family deserved to be called anything good and I was done pretending they did.

"I begged him Connor. I told him you were ready when he said you weren't. I fought for you and this is how you repay me? By sleeping with my best friend in our bed?"

"You slapped me Harper?" His hand went to his face and he was looking at me like he didn't recognize me. "You touched me?"

The shock on his face made something in my chest feel good, made me want to do it again but I was starting to calm down a little and even though he deserved it, I couldn't make myself do it twice.

"If you don't leave me alone and stop stalking me, you'll get worse than that you fool." I turned away from him and started walking and my hands were still shaking. "What was he even doing in LA anyways? And in front of Novare Group?"

The thought made my stomach twist because I'd just been up in that building, just walked away from a job that could have changed everything, and now Connor was here like some kind of bad omen following me around.

Should I have taken the job? The question kept playing in my head and I hated it, hated that I was doubting myself. You're a fool for rejecting that kind of offer, the voice in my head whispered. You could get all you want with that man, he's hot, wants you, makes you feel good, and you're saying no because why? Being a righteous girl won't bring food to your table.

I shook my head trying to make the thoughts stop. "I'll get another job," I said it out loud like that would make it true.

That's when someone grabbed me from behind and I spun around to see Jenny running toward me with her face all twisted up in anger.

"What a hoe that you are Harper." She was practically spitting the words at me. "Slapping my fiance and thinking you'll go scot free?"

Her hand was already coming up toward my face and I grabbed her wrist before she could touch me.

"You'd better stop there." I held her arm tight and she looked shocked that I was fighting back, like she expected me to just stand there and let her hit me. "It's your confidence for me. You want to slap me?"

I pushed her back and I couldn't help but notice what she was wearing, the tight dress that showed everything, the same kind Connor used to tell me I couldn't wear because I'd be selling myself to other men, but here was Jenny wearing exactly that and he didn't care at all.

"Harper do you want to kill me?" Jenny's whole face changed in a second and she was holding her cheek like I'd hit her even though I'd barely touched her. "Connor didn't want you again, is that why you slapped me? I only came to apologize and let us be friends again but you slapped me?"

Then she started crying, real tears running down her face, and I just stood there staring because how had I missed this in all the years I'd known her? How had I not seen that she could cry on command like this?

People were stopping to look now, pulling out their phones, and Jenny was on the ground holding onto my legs like I was hurting her.

"Jenny why are you doing this?" I tried to pull my feet away but she was holding on so tight. "What do you have to gain from this?"

Connor was running toward us and behind him I could see people with big cameras, real photographers, and they were all pointing at us and I tried to hide my face because this looked bad, this looked like I was the one attacking her when I hadn't done anything.

"Who the hell do you think you're treating my fiancée this way?" Connor reached out to push me but before his hand could touch me someone grabbed his wrist and twisted it.

"Leave her alone, and both of you should get off my property." The voice came from behind me and it was deep and dangerous and I knew who it was before I even turned around.