I wanted to watch him lose, not dramatically, but arithmetically, the way he had planned to make me lose — coldly, on paper, with the answer already decided before the meeting began.

And I got exactly that.

I watched him do the math, and I watched the math come back with only one answer, and I have rarely felt anything as clean as watching Callum Merrick realize he had lost the game he was certain he had already won.

Chapter 14 — Play It

He found his footing faster than I expected.

Men like Callum always do; the performance is the only muscle they’ve truly trained.

He came toward me with his arms opening, his face flooding with joy.