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She gave me a skeptical look.

I smiled faintly. “I know. Shocking revelation. Try not to faint.”

“Damon—”

“And before you accuse me of having ulterior motives, I'll have you know my intentions are almost entirely honorable.”

“Almost?”

“I'm still me, sweetheart. Let's not get carried away.”

That earned me another small laugh. Then her smile faded. “You don't even know me.”

I considered that. She was right. I knew the woman who ran a billion-dollar company. The one who was brilliant and had a wicked sense of humor, worked too hard, and treated vulnerability like a contagious disease.

But there were pieces of her I'd never been allowed to see.

Until now.

“Even more reason for me to stick around and remedy that.”

She sighed. “You're persistent.”

“One of my more annoying qualities.”

“One of many.”

“Careful. Keep flirting with me, and I'll get the wrong idea.”

She shook her head, but the corner of her mouth lifted. Then she leaned back against the barn. Not toward me. Not away.

Just back.

And somehow, that felt like an invitation.

So, I stayed.

No grand gestures. No clever lines. No trying to turn the moment into something it wasn't.

Just the two of us sitting in the shade of the barn while the party carried on without us.

After a while, her shoulders relaxed. Her breathing evened out. And when her knee brushed mine, she didn't move it away. Neither did I.

I'd spent most of my life chasing the next laugh, the next kiss, the next woman who might make me feel something.

Turns out, the best moment I'd had in months involved sitting in the dirt beside a woman who'd rejected me seventeen thousand times.

And I hadn't even kissed her.

Hell, I hadn't even tried.

For the first time in a long time, I wasn't thinking about what came next.

I was exactly where I wanted to be.

And I wasn't in any hurry to leave.

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