Her head whips toward me, and the rage in her eyes is immediate and scorching.
“You,” she hisses.
She blows past me, heading for the door, and I fall into step right behind her.
Inside, she aims for the elevator at first, but midway, she seems to realize that would mean being stuck in there with me with no way to escape. She spins toward the stairwell instead and yanks the door open violently.
“You should take the elevator,” I say, following her. “It’s a long way down.”
“If we weren’t coworkers,” she snaps without looking back, her footsteps echoing off the concrete stairs, “and if it wouldn’t be an HR violation, I would slap you for continuing to follow me around.”
“I’ll take the slap,” I say calmly. “I won’t report you.”
Anne stops so abruptly on the next landing, I nearly run into her. She whirls on me, and there are tears in her bright, furious eyes.
“Why?” Her voice breaks on the word. “Why did you have to ruin this for me?”
“Ruin what?”
“Don’t act dumb!” She’s shouting now, and I can hear the pain beneath the anger. “David could see it clearly. He knew you were competing with him. I had promised to give him a chance to get me to fall in love with him.”
The words reverberate in the stairwell.
“You would never have loved him,” I say quietly.
“You don’t know that!” She’s crying now, the tears streaming down her face. “You don’t get to decide that for me!”
I step closer, and she doesn’t move away. Just stands there, trembling with emotion.
“You’re right,” I say softly. “I don’t know for certain. But I do know David would never have been right for you.”
She opens her mouth to argue, but nothing comes out. The fight seems to drain out of her all at once, leaving her weary, defeated.
I reach up, cup her face in my hands, and wipe away her tears with my thumbs.
“David could never see you the way I do,” I tell her, my voice low and steady.
“And how is that?” she whispers.
“Like you’re the most fascinating thing I’ve ever encountered.” I brush another tear away. “David sees a sweet woman who’s kind to everyone. And you are that. But you’re so much more.”
Her breath hitches.
“I see the way your eyes crinkle when you smile,” I continue, each word deliberate. “Your real smile, not the polite one you give everyone else. I see the way you make a small, satisfied hum after your first sip of coffee at your desk in the morning, like that first taste is the best reason to get out of bed and go to work.”
A small sound escapes her throat, something between a laugh and a sob.
“I see the way your eyes flutter closed when you bite into food you really enjoy,” I say, tracing the curve of her cheek with my thumb. “The way your hands move when you’re talking about something you care about, all the little gestures that make your words come alive.”
“Kain...” Her voice is barely audible.
“I’m sorry I pushed you away at first,” I tell her, meaning every word. “And I know what I said about the bond. But once you had my attention, Anne, I couldn’t look away. My eyes kept getting pulled to you. And I found myself falling for you. Again.”
She’s trembling. “You can’t expect me to come running back just because the bond woke up for you, not after you already rejected me.”
“You’re right. The bond might have been what was driving me to act like a lunatic,” I admit. “Following you, stalking you like some obsessed fool. The jealousy was real. But the bond is not why I want to be with you.”
“Then why?” she asks, her eyes searching mine.
