Applause ripples through the conference room, hesitant at first, then building. The campaign is Jamie’s. Ours.
He flashes me a smile, small but radiant, and in that moment, I know: I don’t just want him in my bed or my office. I want him in my life. Partner. Equal. Everything.
19
WE FOUND LOVE (IN AN OFFICE SPACE)
JAMIE
The conference roomstill hums with residual energy, like the air after a thunderstorm. The clients are laughing, trading business cards, and clapping me on the back like I’ve been in this role all along.
Vanessa’s gone. Not fired. Not ousted. Her exit was voluntary, and somehow that makes it easier for the rest of us to swallow.
Now it’s just Magnus and me, lingering while the clients chatter about lunch plans.
“You two will join us, yes?” Councilman Grath booms, smoke curling lazily from his nostrils.
Magnus’s tail flicks once, and then he smiles. “We’ll catch up. I need a word with my strategist first.”
My strategist.
No one corrects him. No one questions it. They just nod and file out, wings brushing, claws clicking against the tile, scales flashing under the overhead lights.
The door closes and silence settles.
And suddenly it’s just Magnus and me, and the weight of everything unsaid between us.
I clear my throat. My hands want to shake, but I shove them under the table instead. “I’m sorry for barging in.”
“Jamie, don’t apologize. You saved us. You clinched the campaign.”
“Okay, then let me apologize for lying.” The words spill out fast, like if I don’t get them out now, I never will. “For pretending I belonged in Vanessa’s chair, for pretending I was more than I was. I told myself it was ambition, that if I could just… fake it long enough, maybe I’d earn it. But really?” I swallow hard. “It was you. I fell for you, Magnus. And I thought if you saw me as—” I gesture vaguely at the empty seat where Vanessa had been, at the power she carried like perfume, “—as more, then maybe you’d…”
I can’t finish.
Magnus leans back, horns catching the light, his eyes impossible to read. “You think I wanted you because of power.”
“I don’t know what you wanted.” My laugh is thin, cracked. “Half the time I don’t even know what I want. But I know what I want now.” My gaze meets his. “You.”
His eyes study me as my pulse races inside me like a dog chasing its tail.
Magnus exhales, his breath low and rough.
“Jamie.” My name rumbles in his chest like a chord. “You think I shut you out because you lied. But the truth is… I was afraid. I’ve spent my whole life surrounded by people who only wanted my power, my influence. Or worse, some flight of fancy. I convinced myself that’s all anyone could want from me. You walked into my office with fire in your eyes and ambition spilling out of your handsome head, and for a second I let myself believe it was real. That you saw me.”
“I did,” I whisper. “I do. See you.”
His tail curls around my leg, anchoring me in place. “I wasn’t angry at the lie. I was angry because you didn’t feel comfortable enough to tell me the truth. To trust me.” His eyes soften. “And because I’d already fallen for you.”
My breath catches. “Say that again.”
“I’d already fallen for you,” he repeats, deliberate, steady. “I’m in love with you, Jamie Torres.”
Everything inside me floods with light. We’re here. Talking. And even after my dishonesty, he loves me.
“I love you too.” My chest expands, endorphins flooding my body. “Gods, Magnus, I love you so much.”
The admission cracks something open in both of us. He surges forward, not with a kiss but with a hand cupping the back of my neck, grounding me, steadying me.
