جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 60

The room went quiet the second I stepped up to the screen. Ten faces stared back at me. Suits, folders, coffee cups nobody was drinking they were all staring at me. Cael sat near the back, arms crossed, watching without a single readable expression on his face. I took a breath and clicked to the first slide. "Thank you all for being here," I said, voice steadier than I expected. "I want to walk you through the Meridian project, and I'm going to keep it simple, because the best ideas usually are." A couple of them smiled slightly at that. "Think of Meridian's brand like a house," I said, clicking to a simple diagram. "Right now, the house has good bones. Strong walls, solid roof. But nobody driving past it stops to look, because the paint is boring and the front door, the decor doesn't stand out." One of the investors chuckled. "Fair description." "Our job wasn't to tear the house down and build a new one," I continued maintaining a polite and professional look. "It was to repain

Nora's POV The drive was quieter than I expected. Soft music played through the car, low enough that I could still hear the sound of the road. Cael drove with one hand on the wheel, his other hand resting between us, and after a few minutes his fingers found mine. I looked down, then at him. He didn't say anything. He simply kept driving, his thumb brushing lightly over the back of my hand. My face became warm. I looked out the window. Why was I suddenly nervous? This wasn't our first time spending time together. We had eaten together once. We had talked, we had laughed. But this felt.... different. This time we both knew there was something between us, and neither of us was pretending otherwise. I bit my lower lip. “Relax.” I looked at him. He was smiling. “What?” “You're nervous.” “I'm not.” “You've been biting your lip for the last five minutes.” I immediately stopped. “I have not.” He laughed. “You have.” “I was...." “You do know you do it subconsciously

Nora's POV The drive was quieter than I expected. Soft music played through the car, low enough that I could still hear the sound of the road. Cael drove with one hand on the wheel, his other hand resting between us, and after a few minutes his fingers found mine. I looked down, then at him. He didn't say anything. He simply kept driving, his thumb brushing lightly over the back of my hand. My face became warm. I looked out the window. Why was I suddenly nervous? This wasn't our first time spending time together. We had eaten together once. We had talked, we had laughed. But this felt.... different. This time we both knew there was something between us, and neither of us was pretending otherwise. I bit my lower lip. “Relax.” I looked at him. He was smiling. “What?” “You're nervous.” “I'm not.” “You've been biting your lip for the last five minutes.” I immediately stopped. “I have not.” He laughed. “You have.” “I was...." “You do know you do it subconsciou

Cael waited until the last employee left the conference room before looking at me. "Stay behind for a minute." I stopped halfway to the door, my stomach tightening. Of course. Geez, I should have moved faster! Everyone else filed out, gathering their notes and laptops, murmuring quietly amongst themselves, and within moments the large conference room was quiet. I sat across from him and folded my arms. "What now?" Cael leaned back in his chair, completely unbothered by my tone. "We need to discuss a few things before tomorrow." "About Meridian?" "Partly." I narrowed my eyes. That answer alone made me suspicious. With Cael, partly never meant something small. It meant he had already decided something and was only now choosing to tell me about it. For a few seconds he reviewed a document in front of him, turning a page slowly, deliberately, like he had all the time in the world. I watched him and said nothing. Then he looked up. "Are you free tomorrow evening?" The questio

44I walked into the office the next morning still half-thinking about that back view at the restaurant, the jacket, the shape of those shoulders I couldn't place.Then I nearly walked straight into him."Morning," I said automatically, stepping back.Cael brushed past without stopping, deep in conversation with one of the executives, something about numbers, contracts, his voice low and focused. He didn't even glance my way.I stood there a second, feeling stupid for expecting anything else. He had a company to run. I wasn't the center of his day, whatever the food on my desk yesterday might have implied.I swallowed it down and headed for my desk.The floor was already buzzing, worse than yesterday. Priyanka looked like she hadn't slept, hair pulled back messy, eyes wide with the particular kind of panic that came right before a deadline."Nora." She caught my arm the second I sat down. "Tell me we're ready. Tell me we're actually ready.""We're ready.""Because Jason thinks the ris