A dragonhead’s life was never boring, and he filled his days with work and deals much bigger than the ones from the year before. All signs pointed to this being a very, very good year. Maybe so good, he’d forget about Dawn altogether. After all, he had better things to do than constantly monitor her.

That anniversary dinner had changed everything. Now that she was fully subdued, he would no longer lack the discipline to resist her. If Dawn were an addiction, she was losing her grip on him. He was sure of it.

Seven months went by without incident. He even decided to take Han up on his invitation to travel with him to Shanghai for the Lunar New Year. And it was more fun than Victor had had in years.

“Remember how hard we partied that month before you left for Japan?” Han asked as they drank champagne at the New Year’s Eve rooftop soiree Han had arranged at the luxury hotel where they were staying. There were beautiful people all around them, models, actresses, and several C-pop stars from a record label they used to wash their money.

Yes, Victor did remember. And when one of the C-pop stars sidled up to him, claiming to be a gift from the head of the label, Victor wanted to be tempted.

He let her sit on his lap while the lights sparkled overhead, willing his cock to rise. To fill even a percentage point of the insatiable desire that had overtaken him on his last anniversary. But it never did.

“Do you want another kind of gift?” the C-Pop star asked. “I can tell the label head to send someone else over. Any of the girls or boys you want. Just write down whoever you want.”

Victor rarely wrote on his scratchpad with strangers. But he broke that rule to write down, “No, thank you. I’m tired. Please, do not take this as an insult.”

He was pleased when she went away without any hurt feelings. Sometimes he forgot that about himself. That he didn’t enjoy hurting women or treating them cruelly. Only one.

After the fireworks finished, he retired to his suite. Instead of bedding the pop star, he went to bed alone and tossed and turned to dreams of Dawn.

He woke up exhausted the next morning. And alone. It was too much. He finally gave in to the temptation he’d been resisting for seven months.

He took his phone off the nightstand’s charger and scrolled to the display app for the cameras Wayne had planted in the Rhode Island house.

Victor hesitated, wanting to be better than this, wanting to be over her. But in the end, what he wanted didn’t matter. He pressed down on the button, unable to stop himself.