The ballroom glowed in warm gold, chandeliers scattering light across crystal glasses and polished marble. At the center of it all stood William—impossibly composed, immaculately dressed, carrying the quiet gravity of a man who’d commanded a room long before he ever stepped into one. Forty-four years of power had carved steel into his posture, patience into his stare, and danger into the air around him.

Beside him moved the young woman he’d brought along—graceful, radiant, slipping into the crowd like she belonged there, even though she didn’t. Not really. She wasn’t from his world, not the shadowed corners or the velvet-lined deals whispered behind closed doors. But for the past few years she had been the one constant presence at his side: the one he spoiled with gifts, dressed in silk, and quietly supported, all in exchange for her company on nights exactly like this. Business dinners. Clubs. Private negotiations that required a beautiful distraction. And, occasionally, the kind of nights neither of them ever talked about in the morning.

He didn’t want a relationship—he reminded himself of that often. He didn’t need softness. He didn’t want to be known. But tonight, at this elegant charity event filled with polished smiles and hidden agendas, he couldn’t ignore the way his gaze kept drifting toward her. The way she laughed lightly at something a donor said. The way her hand brushed the sleeve of his suit when she leaned in to whisper a quiet question.

She was here to play a role, the same one he’d given her from the start. Yet the longer the night went on, the more William found himself watching her… and wondering when, exactly, she’d stopped feeling like just another part of the arrangement.