Guilt twisted through my ribs.
He’d give it up—all of it.
Something he’d admitted he’d always craved, always needed—just to be with me?
“You said they found peace in this kind of—agreement?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Do you think you could help me?” I whispered, afraid to meet his eyes.
“Emma,” he breathed. “You’re incredibly strong—amazing, successful in everything you do.”
Then his voice turned rough and careful. “But having said that, I know you struggle. You’ve said it yourself—feeling alone. Abandoned. Overwhelmed.” He swallowed hard. “If you’re asking whether I could help with that… I could try. I’d want to.”
Memories flickered like broken film reels—those nights my thoughts spiraled until I couldn’t breathe, when the world pressed in too tight, when even success couldn’t drown out the silence that followed me everywhere.
And the way it had eased when I wasn’t alone in it.
When Read’s messages cut through the static.
When the voices quieted because someone was there to shoulder the weight with me.
Because part of me wanted to believe Damien now.
Part of me wanted to hand over every jagged piece of myself and whisperfix it.
But the other part—the one built from ambition and survival and loneliness—flinched.
I’d spent so long clinging to control, to order, to the illusion of having it all together. And now he was offering me a differentkind of control—one that wouldn’t belong to me at all, but somehow promised to set me free.
My pulse fluttered at the thought. At him.
The man who had every reason to walk away after the stunt I’d pulled today.
Maybe this wasn’t about surrender.
Maybe it was about trust.
And god help me, I wasn’t sure which terrified me more.
Chapter 31
***
Damien
Was Emma Sinclair actually interested in—
I couldn’t even finish the thought.
The idea of her submission was too absurd to breathe life into.
Emma.
CEO. Tactician. My equal in every sense that mattered.
The woman who could level a boardroom with a single glance—who’d steamrolled an entire negotiation just hours ago, manipulating, maneuvering, winning without breaking a damn sweat.
