I fall asleep to the sound of his heartbeat.
Morning light cutsthrough the blinds.
I wake slowly, disoriented. The couch. A warm body beside me. Kai's arm still around my shoulders, chin resting against my hair.
I don't move. Watch him sleep. The sharp lines of his face softened. The dark circles under his eyes. The stubble shadowing his jaw.
He looks younger like this. Vulnerable. I want to protect this version of him, the one only I get to see.
He stirs. Blinks. Eyes find mine, widen.
“Hey,” he says, voice rough with sleep.
“Hey.”
Neither of us moves. The moment stretches, fragile.
He pulls back slowly, runs a hand through his hair. “I need to go. People to talk to. Threads to pull.” He meets my eyes. “I meant what I said. I'm going to find whoever did this to your family.”
I nod.
He stands, winces as he puts weight on his bad leg. I watch him gather himself. Put the armor back on piece by piece.
At the door, he stops. Looks at me with an intensity that's terrifying and magnetic at the same time.
He turns back, kneels in front of me. Right there on my worn carpet. This man, raised in mansions and chauffeured cars, kneeling at my feet like I'm something precious.
“My worst fear came true,” he says quietly. “I told you the truth and watched your face change. Watched you look at me like I was one of them.” He swallows. “I knew I fucked up. I didn't know how to protect you and tell you the truth at the same time. I chose wrong.”
I lick my dry lips. My body shaking with repressed emotions.
“If you give me a chance,” he says, “I'll spend the rest of our lives making you happy. I don't know how to prove that. I just know it's true.”
He takes my hands, presses his forehead against my knuckles. His breath warm on my skin.
No kiss. No demands. Just this gesture. Like a knight making an oath.”
I sit there for a long time after he's gone.
Work is a blur.
I answer emails without reading them. Sit through a meeting without hearing a word. My body is at my desk, but my mind keeps drifting back to my apartment. To Kai on his knees. To the weight of his forehead against my hands.
At three o'clock, the receptionist appears at my desk.
“Emma? There's a woman here to see you. Says it's regarding a business opportunity.”
I frown. I don't have any meetings scheduled. “Did she give a name?”
“Helena Hammond.”
The name lands like a punch to the stomach. I keep my face neutral, but my pulse races.
“Send her to conference room B. I'll be there in five minutes.”
I use those five minutes to breathe. To steady myself. To remember that I am not the same woman James spent years diminishing. I am not easily broken.
When I walk into the conference room, she's already seated. Immaculate in cream silk. Blonde hair swept into a perfect chignon. Diamonds glinting at her ears. She looks like she stepped out of a society magazine.
