I like having you here.
He'd said it like it was nothing.
Like it was just another quiet observation.
But it wasn't nothing.
And Emily knew it the moment the silence fell between them.
She didn't know what to say. There was a part of her that wanted to downplay it, to make a joke or change the subject. But she couldn't bring herself to laugh it off. Not when his eyes looked so serious. So steady.
She held his gaze for just a beat longer.
Then he turned, motioned gently toward the hallway. "We should finish going over the last file."
His voice was even again, professional — like he hadn't just cracked the surface between them with a single sentence.
"Right," she said, almost too quickly. "Of course."
She followed him back to the study, heart pounding in her chest, trying to hold onto the calm she'd felt earlier. The one from lunch. The one where everything had felt… simple.
Now? It was anything but.
The moment they sat side by side again, the air felt different.
He was close. Not too close, but enough that she could feel the heat of his presence, the subtle shift of his body as he leaned forward to adjust the screen.
She forced herself to look at the monitor.
Focus.
Numbers. Projections. Expansion strategy. She'd reviewed documents like this dozens of times since starting at Walker & Co. She'd never had a problem concentrating.
But now?
Now her brain was stuck on a loop.
Ilike having you here.
Why would he say that?
Why now?
Was it just gratitude? Professional courtesy?
Or something else?
Her hands stilled slightly on the keyboard, fingers hovering over the keys. He didn't notice. Or maybe he did and didn't comment.
She took a deep breath and kept typing.
They worked in near silence for the next hour, but it wasn't the comfortable quiet from earlier. It was full of tension — quiet, unsaid things floating between them like static.
And yet… she didn't want to leave.
Even with her nerves jangling and her thoughts tangled, she liked being here.
In this study.
In this home.
With him.
She wasn't used to that feeling — not around men like Damian. Men who exuded power, who carried the room without saying a word. Men who never once made her feel like she was invading their space… but who also didn't invite her in.
He had.
And now she wasn't sure what to do with that.
"Emily," he said suddenly.
She blinked, snapping out of her thoughts. "Yes?"
"Would you like to take another break? You've been staring at that screen for ten minutes."
Her cheeks flushed. "Have I?"
He nodded, eyes unreadable but not unkind.
"I'm sorry. I just got distracted."
"It's okay," he said, and there was something soft in his voice again. "We don't have to finish everything today. I didn't bring you here to bury you in paperwork."
"No," she said quickly. "I want to help. I just…" She hesitated. "You caught me off guard earlier."
He looked at her, still and calm.
"With what I said?"
She nodded.
"I meant it," he said simply.
She didn't respond right away.
Because the truth was, she liked being here too.
But saying it out loud felt like crossing a line she wasn't ready to define.
So she smiled instead — small, uncertain, but honest. "It's been a strange day."
He gave the faintest nod. "Strange isn't always bad."
They went back to work after that — or pretended to.
But every word they exchanged sat on top of something deeper, something quietly rising beneath the surface.
And Emily knew that when the day finally ended…
She wouldn't be leaving the same way she arrived.