Cole invited me to Elevation.
Not Wen dragging me out. Not borrowed dresses and boots on a dance floor. Him. Standing at my counter with the ghost of his lips still on my knuckles from yesterday, asking me to come to his club on a night he'd be there. His territory. His invitation. The first time he'd brought me into his world instead of entering mine.
"Why?" I said.
"Because you've seen Treeline and Vail and Aspen and the inside of my car. You haven't seen me where I operate."
"I've seen you operate. You pulled my chair at a dinner table and carried me through a nightclub."
"That was reactive. This is deliberate." He looked at me across the counter — the counter where his mouth had been on my knuckles twenty hours ago. "I want you in my space because you chose to be there. Not because Wen ambushed you."
