DAMIEN

I could not sleep when I got home. Every time I closed my eyes, the image returned in perfect, merciless detail. Macey sat in her office chair, head tipped back, lips softly parted, her entire body trembling as she came apart. The moment burned itself into me. It branded my mind, my nerves, my pulse. I knew she had unraveled because of me. I could see it in the way her eyes had locked onto mine, filled with desire and desperation, as if she wanted me with the same intensity that had been tearing through me.

I tried to fight it. I put on music. I scrolled through pointless notifications on my phone. I even opened my laptop and attempted to read through a stack of emails I had ignored for too long. Nothing worked. Every thought drifted back to her. Every sound reminded me of her voice. Every blink returned the image of her breathless and flushed in that chair.

By the time I found myself in my home office, I had stopped pretending I could focus on anything else.

I leaned against the desk and closed my eyes, but that only made everything sharper. I could hear the soft sounds she had made. I could see the way her thighs had trembled. I could almost feel the warmth of her breath against my skin. My hand moved before I even realized what I was doing. I gave in to the need that had been clawing at me. The release was fierce and fast, and the pressure behind my ribs finally eased. For a moment I felt lighter, almost relieved.

The moment did not last. As soon as it was over, she was still there inside my head. My body still hummed with leftover desire. My thoughts still circled her like I was trapped in orbit. I felt restless, frustrated, and hungry for more. I wanted her. I wanted the real thing, her skin under my hands and her breath against my mouth. Nothing else could quiet the noise inside me.

I paced my bedroom until the sky outside began to shift into pale streaks of pink. Morning arrived, but sleep never did. By the time I showered and pulled on a suit, I felt wired and exhausted at the same time. My chest carried a restless heat that refused to settle.

I arrived at the office far earlier than usual. Earlier than Zinna, which was unheard of. She looked up from her desk the moment I walked in. Her eyes widened behind her glasses as if she could not comprehend that I was functioning before ten.

“Morning,” I said, walking past her with a coffee I did not even want.

She stared at me for a second. “You are in early.”

“Yeah.” I shrugged and kept moving toward my office. I could not tell her the truth. I could not tell her that a single woman had turned me into a man who could not think straight.

I had almost reached my door when her voice floated after me. “Oh, by the way, Macey is not coming in today. She said she is sick.”

I paused. The corners of my mouth twitched. Sick. Of course. She was hiding. Running. Pretending that the night before had not lit her up from the inside. I turned back slowly, keeping my expression neutral.

“Sick? What happened?”

“She texted me this morning.” Zinna kept typing without looking up. “She said she caught a cold from staying late.”

A cold. I could almost hear Macey’s voice trying to convince herself that avoiding me was a logical decision. I smoothed my features into a polite smile.

“Thank you for letting me know.”

Zinna nodded and continued her work, unaware of the battle I was already losing inside my own head.

The day dragged. Every task felt impossible. Every email blurred into meaningless lines of text. Every minute reminded me that Macey was not there. Her absence filled the entire building, almost louder than her presence. I remembered her laughter. Her firm tone when she thought I was being an ass. The way she looked when she let herself go in that chair. Her name echoed through my mind like a rhythm I could not shut off.

By noon I had reached my limit. I walked out of my office and leaned on the edge of Zinna’s desk, trying to appear casual. She did not even glance up. She was used to me doing this whenever I needed something or felt restless.

“What are you doing?” she asked without pausing her typing.

“Thinking about sending flowers to Macey,” I said. “She sounded terrible. Do you have her address on file?”

It was a lie and we both knew it. But Zinna did not suspect anything. She simply scrolled through her contacts and read the address aloud while she typed it into a message she planned to send our delivery service. I memorized it immediately.

I was already halfway to the elevator before my mind fully processed the information. My pulse quickened. The anticipation felt electric. I could imagine her surprise when she opened her door. I could practically feel the moment she would try to act annoyed and fail. I could see the spark in her eyes that always gave her away.

I should have known the universe would interfere. Zinna came rushing toward me with panic all over her face.

“Damien, wait. You need to meet with a client. It is urgent. He is the investor from last year’s pitch. He is here right now.”

I stopped and stared at her. The timing was awful. This deal had been years in the making. If I walked away from it over a woman, I would regret it forever. My frustration clawed at my throat, but I forced it down. I nodded and followed her.

The meeting was long. It required me to smile at the right times and pretend I was present. I signed documents and asked the necessary questions, but my mind remained far away. I pictured Macey curled up in her bed. I imagined her thinking about the night before. I wondered if she tried to convince herself that it meant nothing, even though it clearly did.

The moment I was finally free, I did not bother returning to my office. I headed straight for the parking garage. I climbed into my Range Rover and drove with single-minded determination. Every red light irritated me. Every slow car felt like an obstacle placed directly in my path.

My chest tightened the closer I got to her building, not because of nerves but because of a deep hunger that had been building since the moment she had let herself break apart in front of me.

Macey Carter was not like other women. She did not care about my car or my money or the things people usually used to impress me. She had grown up in privilege, and because of that she saw straight through the superficial parts of my world. She looked at me as if she was waiting to see whether I could offer her something honest.

For reasons I could not fully explain, I wanted to. I wanted her to see something real in me. I wanted her to know that she affected me in ways no one else ever had.

When I arrived at her building, I parked and walked straight inside. My palms felt warm. My pulse beat faster. I rang her doorbell once. Then again. I rang it five times before I finally heard footsteps on the other side.

The door opened. There she was.

Macey stood in front of me with wide eyes and parted lips. She looked stunned. Her hair was in a loose knot. Her sweater slipped off one shoulder. Her face was bare and beautiful. Her feet were bare too, and the sight of her like that made something inside me throb with a fierce, intimate tug.

“Damien?” She whispered my name. Her voice broke slightly, as if she was unsure I was real.

I felt a slow smile form on my mouth. She was beautiful like this. Soft. Unprepared. Honest.

“Hi, Macey.”

She blinked in confusion. “What are you doing here?”

I leaned against the doorframe, letting my gaze move over her face. “You were not at work. I got worried.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but she never got the chance. I reached out and placed my hand on the back of her neck. Her skin felt warm. She inhaled sharply.

I pulled her toward me and kissed her. Hard.