جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 20

*POV Derby* For the rest of the week, I made avoiding Jordan part of my daily routine. I came in earlier than usual, lingered at my desk long after everyone else left, and quietly changed little routines I'd followed for years. It was ridiculous, but somehow it felt easier than risking another unexpected conversation.. None of it made much sense, yet every adjustment gave me the illusion that I still had some control. The strange part was that avoiding him never seemed to work. Some days he'd pass me in the hallway on his way to another meeting, offering the same polite nod he'd give anyone else.. Other times, I'd glance up from my computer only to find him already looking in my direction. The moment never lasted long, but somehow it always stayed with me. Never a word. Neither of us stopped to talk, and neither of us gave the other any reason to. Still, his presence had an unsettling way of making me notice him long before I actually saw him. I couldn't honestly call it purs

*POV Derby* At first, the changes were easy to ignore. By the end of the week, pretending not to notice had become impossible. By midweek, I noticed conversations pausing whenever I walked into a room. Some coworkers greeted me with smiles that felt a little too eager, asking harmless questions while watching my reactions a little too closely. Others barely looked my way, cutting conversations short the moment I joined them. Every now and then, quiet whispers floated through the hallway. I never caught enough words to understand them, only enough to know they stopped whenever I came closer. Whoever the rumors were about, people clearly didn't want me hearing them.. I kept telling myself it would blow over if I didn't give it attention. So I buried myself in reports, answered emails faster than usual, and accepted every extra task that landed on my desk. Staying busy felt easier than thinking. It didn't help. No matter how much work I found, the feeling of being watche

-POV Derby I didn’t go to his place that night. I went home and checked the lock twice before I even took off my shoes. At 11:47, my phone lit up and my stomach dropped before I even looked at the screen. For a second I honestly thought about pretending I hadn’t seen it. I stared at the screen, pulse hammering. Any sensible person would’ve ignored it. Five seconds later I was already walking toward the door. Instead, I walked to the door on shaky legs and opened it. Jordan stood there, dark coat over his suit, looking annoyed enough that I knew he’d been standing there for a while. He stepped inside before I’d figured out what I was going to say. The second the door clicked shut behind him, he had me pinned against it, mouth crashing down on mine. The kiss was brutal — all teeth and tongue, like he was punishing me for making him wait. His hands gripped my waist, pulling me hard against him so I could feel how stiff he already was. “You think you can run from me?”

-POV Derby I lasted until 8:47 PM.By 8:48, I was already in a cab.Somewhere between my apartment and his building, I started making promises to myself I had no business making. The elevator opened, and suddenly there was nowhere left to hide behind excuses. Jordan looked up before the elevator doors had fully opened. For once he didn’t look like the man who ran half the company. He looked like someone who’d been waiting. The tension left his shoulders so quickly it almost looked like relief. “I wasn’t sure you would.” he said, voice low and rough. “I shouldn’t have.” He set the glass down and started toward me before I’d finished exhaling. Before I could decide whether to stay or leave, he’d already closed the distance between us. He kissed me like he’d spent the entire week arguing with himself, like he’d been carrying around something he didn’t know what to do with. His hands gripped my waist, pulling me hard against him so I could feel how stiff he already was.

-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 we’d been avoiding wasn’t going away. I took the elevator down feeling like a thief. By the time I got home, the version of me that had felt brave walking out of his penthouse was nowhere to be found. I showered until the water ran cold, trying to wash away the scent of him, the feeling of his hands, the echo of his voice whispering “you’re mine” against my skin. It didn’t work. At work, I went through the motions. Emails, meetings, polite smiles whenever someone asked how my weekend had been. Noah noticed. He didn’t say anything in front of others, but during lunch he pulled me aside in the pantry. “You look like you’re barely holding it together,” he said quietly. I forc