When Lucas fell asleep, I went downstairs to get water for my medication and said good night to Martina and Taylor. I couldn’t find Caleb, so I went upstairs to his room and knocked.
There was no answer, so I opened the door.
He had just come out of the shower, wearing only a towel around his waist. “Hey, sorry, I didn’t hear you. Do you need anything?”
His toned body made me blush instantly. I looked down and bit my lip. “I just wanted to say good night and thank you. Thanks again for letting Lucas and me stay here.”
I was trembling like a love-struck teenager and silently scolded myself to grow up.
He placed his hands on my shoulders, his voice low and husky. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I told you I would keep you safe, and that’s exactly what I plan to do.”
As much as I wanted to touch him, as much as I yearned for it, I couldn’t bring myself to start something I wasn’t sure I could finish. “I’m a bit tired,” I lied. “Still got some recuperation to do, I guess.”
“Give me a sec.” He walked into the walk-in closet and closed the door. When he came back out, he wore sweatpants.
He walked me back to my room and tucked me in beside Lucas, pulling the blanket gently up to my shoulders. The water droplets still clinging to his shoulders caught the light, and the sight of them made my skin heat despite myself. Then he stepped back quietly, as if careful not to wake Lucas.
“Good night,” he said, kissing my cheek. “We have a lot to talk about, but it can wait.”
I nodded, knowing that the almost-kiss before my birthday still lingered between us, that feelings needed to be shared and pasts needed to be disclosed.
34
NYAH
Ieased slowly back into something that resembled my routine. For a couple of days, I worked from Caleb’s penthouse, moving through my tasks with a strange sense of suspension, before finally returning to the office. Taylor escorted me safely to and from work in the BMW, his presence constant and watchful, a quiet reminder that normal was still conditional.
Alex called me one morning while I was on my way in. “He’s still in town, but we’re on him, Nyah,” he said. “He doesn’t seem to be doing much. If there’s anything to worry about, rest assured, you’ll be the first to know.”
I thanked him and ended the call, gripping my phone a little tighter than necessary.
Taylor caught my eye in the mirror, his brows drawn together in concern.
“Taylor?” I said.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“What you hear in the car?—”
“Stays in the car. Yes, ma’am.”
I nodded, exhaling quietly.I will tell Caleb. When the time is right.Thethought roosted in my chest, not as reassurance, but as something unfinished.
On the morningof February 14th, just before rushing out the door, Caleb asked me to keep my schedule free for that evening. He didn’t mention Valentine’s Day, but he didn’t have to. I would have had to be dense not to connect the dots.
The request followed me through the day—through getting Lucas ready for school, through the ride to work, through endless meetings and emails. His words echoed in my head, looping quietly but persistently.
He hadn’t called it a date, but it was one. It had to be. Our first, technically. And despite all the times we’d gone out with others, or stayed in with Lucas over the past eight months, this felt different. The thought of it made my stomach flutter.
Eventually, I sighed and leaned back in my chair, abandoning any pretense of productivity. I felt like a yacht moored in a marina, rocking gently in place, waiting to be taken out onto open water where I could finally feel the wind fill my sails again.
It took Amy tapping on my door at five o’clock to pull me out of my thoughts.
“Valentine’s delivery, m’dear,” she said brightly, waving a single red lily and a matching envelope.
“For me?” I asked, blinking at her.
“Hmmm, let me see.” She frowned theatrically at the back of the envelope. “To the love-struck damsel on the second floor—the one staring out the window and daydreaming about being carried away by her Prince Charming.”
