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Chapter 44 — The First Real Touch
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-06-24 06:47:41
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One Night, Wrong Man Chapter 44 — The First Real Touch
-POV Derby I sat still on the leather sofa, the digital tablet in my lap displaying a list of fuel-surcharge adjustments that had long stopped making sense. The take-out containers had been cleared away, and the amber light from the desk lamp threw a warm, quiet glow across the hardwood floor, stopping just short of our feet. Jordan hadn't moved back to his desk. He remained sitting on the adjacent section of the sofa, his long legs stretched out, his eyes fixed on the city lights blinking through the glass window. The sharp, restless energy that usually drove him to pace the room or check his inbox every three minutes had entirely faded. He looked quiet. Almost still. "You're staring, Derby," he murmured, not turning his head. The gravel in his voice was softer now, muffled by the late hour and the half-empty glass of whiskey sitting on the side table. "I'm looking at the logistics data," I lied, my voice flat but lacking its usual defensive edge. "The tablet is upside down," Jo
One Night, Wrong Man Chapter 43 — Too Comfortable
-POV Derby The take-out cartons from the Thai place on 45th Street were scattered across the low glass coffee table, alongside three different printouts of the revised shipping manifests. It was almost ten at night. The cleaning crew down the hall had already finished their pass on the executive wing, leaving the forty-second floor in that deep, absolute quiet that usually signaled it was time to leave. Instead, I was sitting on the edge of the plush leather sofa, my legs tucked under me, laughing so hard my chest actually ached. "You did not say that to a federal auditor," I gasped, holding the paper cup of iced tea like a shield as I looked across the table at him. "Tell me you didn’t." Jordan was leaning back against the armrest of the heavy chair opposite me, his charcoal suit jacket draped over the back of his desk chair and his white sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He had his glass of whiskey resting against his knee, the ice long melted, and for the first time since I’d kn
One Night, Wrong Man Chapter 42 — Routine That Isn’t Normal
-POV Derby The three-week mark of the Vanguard integration phase arrived without a corporate announcement, but my life had already quietly restructured itself around a brand-new set of coordinates. By mid-November, the frantic, high-stakes panic of our first few encounters had settled into something far more terrifying: a routine. It didn't start with a formal agreement, and we definitely didn't sit down to draft a memo about it. It just happened, sliding into the cracks of the daily office grind until the boundaries between my actual job and my secret life became completely blurred. Every Tuesday and Thursday night, the pattern was exactly the same. The digital clock on my twenty-fourth-floor monitor would click past 7:30 PM, the fluorescent lights overhead shifting into the automated evening energy-saving mode. The rest of the operations pool would be long gone, their chairs neatly tucked into their particle-board partitions. Then, my private inbox would chime with a single, une
One Night, Wrong Man Chapter 41 — Stay
-POV Derby The raw taste of the whiskey on his tongue was still burning in the back of my throat long after he pulled away. Jordan’s forearm stayed pressed flat against the painted concrete wall right above my shoulder, his massive frame creating a shadow that completely blocked out the pale fluorescent lighting of the utility corridor. His breathing was heavy, the fabric of his white shirt rising and falling against my chest with a slow, disciplined rhythm that felt entirely too loud in the narrow hallway. I kept my hands flat against his chest, feeling the hard, steady thud of his heart beneath my fingers. Every single self-preserving instinct I had left was screaming at me to use this exact pocket of air to push him back, to grab my cardboard box of compliance logs, and to finally take the exit door behind him. The boundary lines hadn't changed. Tamara was still out there in the light of the conservatory, and the multi-billion-dollar pre-nuptial agreements were still sitting on
One Night, Wrong Man Chapter 40 — He Still Chooses to Stay
-POV Derby The industrial copier in the restricted alcove finally went quiet, its cooling fan letting out a long, mechanical sigh that felt entirely too relatable. I stacked the freshly printed compliance sheets into the cardboard file box, my hands functioning on pure muscle memory while my brain remained completely numb. *You don't belong here.* The phrase had settled into the marrow of my bones, heavy, cold, and irrefutable. I looked down at the box in my arms. This was my boundary line. These white pages, the cheap toner scent, the stiff fabric of my mass-market blazer—this was my actual coordinates on the map. Jordan could talk about wanting the glitch when the doors were locked on the forty-second floor, but the second the sun came up, his life belonged to a shipping heiress who wore emerald silk like a birthright. I was done playing the hidden anomaly in his perfect system. I was going to deliver these files to the administrative drop box, take the service elevator down to
One Night, Wrong Man Chapter 39 — The Difference Between Them
-POV Derby The double doors of the east terrace stayed open just enough for the afternoon breeze to cut through the heavy scent of white orchids. I stood near the secondary service station, my clipboard held flat against my ribs as I watched the VIP tables fill up with the principal shareholders of the Vanguard merger. I had delivered the menus, checked the seating rows, and verified the digital logistics badges for the executive assistants. My job for the noon hour was technically done. I should have walked back down to the lower-level staff lounge where the coffee was cheap and the fluorescent lights didn't make my fifty-dollar blazer look like a discount item. Instead, my feet wouldn't move. I was trapped near the edge of the terrace, my eyes tracking the movement of a single emerald silk dress across the polished floor. Tamara was sitting at the center table, right next to Jordan’s father. She didn't look like she was participating in a corporate luncheon; she looked like she
One Night, Wrong Man Chapter 23 — The First Crack
-POV Derby I didn’t expect to see him again so soon. But two days later, at the annual company gala, Jordan Vasquez walked into the ballroom with the kind of presence that made conversations pause mid-sentence. Judging by the way half the room turned toward the entrance, I wasn’t the only one
One Night, Wrong Man Chapter 22 — No More Running
-POV Derby I didn’t leave his penthouse that night. After everything that had happened between us that night, leaving stopped feeling as simple as walking out the door. We lay there in silence, his arm still around my waist, and for once neither of us seemed interested in breaking it. Somew
One Night, Wrong Man Chapter 21 — The Price of Wanting
-POV Derby I left Jordan’s office that evening knowing I’d just made everything harder. I couldn’t bring myself to go home yet, so I spent the next hour wandering the city with nowhere specific to be, letting the cold night air sting my skin, hoping I’d stop replaying every conversation we’d ha
One Night, Wrong Man Chapter 20 — The Line We Keep Crossing
-POV Derby I left his penthouse that morning without saying goodbye. I slipped out while he was still asleep, one arm stretched across the bed like he’d expected me to still be there. Leaving would’ve felt easier if every part of me wasn’t still thinking about him, like he knew the conversation
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