I stiffened. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
Hayden’s gaze dropped to my mouth for a second before returning to my eyes. “Careful, my little Flare.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“There is no woman equal to you for me,” he said, voice rougher now. “Not her. Not anyone. So if you’re going to be jealous, at least be jealous for the right reasons.”
My silence answered him. He watched me for a moment longer before speaking again.
“You know this is getting exhausting.”
“What is?”
“This,” he said, gesturing between us. “The amount of effort you’re putting into pretending we don’t have a past.”
I forced my voice to stay even.
“We do have a past.”
“And?”
“And that is exactly where it belongs. In the past”
His gaze darkened.
“You really believe that.”
“Yes.”
He stayed quiet for a moment, his eyes moving over my face as if he were searching for something he expected to find there. Then his voice dropped.
“You can keep moving around this building trying to avoid me if it makes you feel better,” he said. “But you should know something.”
“What?”
“I’m patient.”
The words unsettled me more than I wanted to admit.
“And patience,” he continued, “usually wins these kinds of games.”
The office felt too small again. The tension between us had grown with every encounter that day, and the thought of this becoming a pattern settled heavily in my chest. Avoiding Hayden Stone inside the same university was already beginning to feel impossible, and something told me he had no intention of making it easier.
I tightened my fingers around the door handle, ready to leave before the conversation turned into something neither of uscould control. Every second in that room made the composure I had been holding onto since last week feel thinner.
I turned back toward him, searching for something to say, anything that might end the conversation.
Then my phone rang. The sound cut through the office, and my body tensed before I reached for it. The screen lit up as I pulled the phone from my bag, and the moment I saw the name, my breath caught.
Helena.
For a split second I froze.
There was a brief, silent exchange of glances between Hayden and me. His eyes flicked toward the phone in my hand, curiosity appearing there before I could stop it. My gaze moved quickly between him and the glowing screen, the hesitation in my movements impossible to hide.
The air between us grew heavier.
Answering meant letting him hear.
