Alle Kapitel von SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS : Kapitel 61 – Kapitel 70

FLYNN'S POV "Dominic." He didn't slow down. Just said my name back like a confirmation of something he'd already expected. "Flynn." I caught up in three steps and moved in front of him. Forced the stop. We were thirty feet from the main gallery, the sound of the celebration still audible behind us, the low warmth of it carrying through the wall like something from a different world. I kept my voice down. "Did you tell her?" He looked at me with the composed expression he'd brought to every interaction we'd ever had. Controlled, unhurried, the face of a man who was very good at not showing what was happening underneath. "Excuse me?" "Did you tell her what you did. How you found her, how you thought to use her?" I held his eyes. "You've had months, Dominic. You put a ring on her finger tonight. I need to know if she said yes knowing the full truth." He looked at me for a long moment. "What I tell her," he said quietly, "and what I don't, is none of your business." "It is wh

DOMINIC'S POVMy assistant knocked at ten fifteen and said I had a visitor without an appointment.I knew before she said the name.Isabella walked in with the particular composure of a woman who had thought about this moment more than she was going to let show. She looked good. She always looked good. She sat in the chair across from my desk without being invited to, crossed one leg over the other, and looked at me with the steady dark eyes I'd known for three years.I put the contract summary down."Isabella. What do you want?""I told you what I want. Fuck you know what I want" She looked around the office briefly. Not nervously. Taking inventory."And I've told you multiple times that I've moved on." I kept my voice level. "At increasing volume."She looked back at me."You moved on because she was available and she was there and she reminded you of something you wanted to feel." She leaned forward slightly. "But I know you, Dominic. The real version. The one underneath the office

ISABELLA'S POVAria was already there when I walked in.Window table, menu open, her left hand resting at the edge of it. The ring caught the light when she reached for her water glass. A clean, precise flash. I saw it from the door and made myself breathe before I crossed the room."Sorry, am I late?" I set my bag down and sat."Not at all. I was early." She smiled. The easy, open kind. "I've been looking forward to this all week."We ordered. Aria talked about the gala, The sales, Clara's excitement about a second show already in discussion, Vincent's face when the fifth piece sold. She talked with her hands, the ring moving through the air as she spoke, I watched it, listened and thought: she is remarkable. I understand completely why he loves her. I hate this so much.I ordered wine when the server came back.Drank half of it before the food arrived.The conversation moved between us easily, the rhythm two women fell into when they'd discovered they actually liked each other, whic

I turned the key in the lock and stepped into my apartment building still carrying the heavy knot from lunch with Isabella. I hadn't decided anything yet. Not what to do with what she told me or whether to say a word to Dominic. For twenty minutes in the elevator I had even forgotten we had plans tonight.Then I saw him.Dominic stood right there at my door, holding a bouquet of soft pink peonies. My favorite. The ones he always remembered."Beautiful women should have beautiful things," he said, voice low and warm as he held them out to me.“ Awwn, Dominic” I took the flowers, their petals cool against my palm. This is what it looks like. This is what real feels like. The thought hit me so hard it almost knocked the breath out of me."Come in," I said, my voice steadier than I felt.He followed me inside and closed the door. I headed straight for the kitchen, found a vase under the sink, and filled it with water. The stems made a soft rustle as I arranged them. They looked perfect on

ARIA'S POVJordan arrived with food. A bag from the breakfast spot three blocks over, the kind of place that required a wait on weekday mornings. She'd gotten there early enough to beat the line, which meant she'd been up thinking about this before most people were awake.I knew this signal. Jordan brought food when the conversation was going to require something to do with your hands.I put the kettle on without being asked.We sat at my kitchen table with the food between us and I watched her arrange the things she bought. She wasn't dramatic about it. Jordan was never dramatic. She was methodical, which was sometimes worse."Tell me," I said.She did.She laid it out cleanly and in order. Everything she found. She said it all without the framing of someone trying to convince me of something. Just information, laid on the table in sequence, and then she stopped and let the silence be what it was.The room was very quiet. Then. "You're telling me," I said, "that he knew about Flyn