The room tilts.
My heart slams. And for one dizzying second—I forget everything.
The text.
The awful feeling of waking up alone.
The hurt.
All of it disappears under the weight of him.
Then he pulls back just enough.
Not far.
Never far.
His hand still at my neck.
His eyes locked on mine.
Dark.
Certain.
“She ain’t single,” he says.
But he’s not looking at Jake.
He’s looking at me.
Like I’m the one who needed that answer.
And suddenly—everything I told myself this morning?
Everything I thought I understood?
It all shatters.
Because this?
This is not casual.
This is not clean.
This is not something I can walk away from without consequences.
And the worst part?
I don’t know if I want to.
Chapter Twenty-Three
David
I walk into the conference room already keyed up.
Not from the meeting.