: Everything

g into someone else's story, a life that didn't quite bel

Gold

hers. It sounded like someone who had grown up attending galas, not someone w

cious. Quiet. And entirely too elegant for a woman who used to fall asleep on a seco

bed with pristine white linens. A walk-in closet the size of her old living room. A

, yes. Bu

ike her n

h her. It felt surreal, being this high up, above all the noise and

or time to think. And she certainly wasn't used to luxury t

barefaced, hair loose, wrapped in a robe that

t feel li

uest. Or worse, a

soft knock

, startled

oved the jacket and rolled up the sleeves. He looked exhausted. L

up a small tray with two mugs and a plate of wha

ked. "Are

ly. "Well, not by me. My housekeeper

at tugged at her lips. "Didn't peg y

the room and placed the tray on the

as she sat on the bed. Daniel t

the quiet clinking of mugs as they sipped coc

e said finally.

brow raised. "For the

ke a business transaction

dable. "I didn't want to marry someone w

dn't want love, but you didn'

e used," he said qu

for a moment. "S

y laugh. "Th

got dumped for a we

looked. "We're two people who

"Doesn't mean we kno

uild something from it. Something cl

im, his brutal honesty. No s

rea

ocoa, the tension softening between t

itted. "The space. The quiet. I

mug on the tray.

ll

st reassuring smile. "You

, surprised. "You

's had to survive for so long, she

rder than s

keep thinking I should be crying. Or panicking. Or r

"Sometimes surviving is th

is time, the silence wasn't unc

ing his sleeves down

k to the door, then

tur

d the cocoa. And for not making

than usual when he rep

n he wa

aring at the ceiling, her heart q

trust him

t maybe, she d

toni

people pretending they had a little