جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 30

Rosa's Pov"Alright. That's enough. Rosa, I asked you a question." Johansson's voice stayed sweet, the kind of sweet that came laced with poison. "Where did you attend school?""I studied linguistics. Several universities, actually." I kept my chin up, my voice steady despite my racing heart. "Why does that matter to you?""Curiosity." She turned slightly toward the women flanking her. "It's just strange, isn't it? A translator marrying Daniel Gosling overnight. Just a chapel and a marriage certificate.""Some things happen quickly.""Or conveniently." One of the other women laughed, sharp and cruel. "Especially when there's a fortune involved.""I wasn't aware of his fortune when I married him.""How fortunate for you that it worked out so well, then." Johansson's smile widened. "Tell me, did you know who he was before that night? Be honest.""I told you I didn't.""It's just that the timing is so suspicious." She tilted her head, voice carrying further now, drawing more eyes from ne

Rosa's PovThe car ride home felt different than the one that brought us there.I sat pressed against the door, my hands still trembling in my lap, the diamond necklace suddenly heavy against my collarbone. Daniel sat across from me, jaw tight, eyes fixed somewhere out the window. The silence between us was thick, charged with everything that had happened in that ballroom."You didn't have to do that," I said finally."Do what?""Defend me like that. In front of everyone.""They were wrong about you.""People are wrong about me every day, Daniel. You don't usually say anything."He didn't answer that. His hands stayed clenched on his knees, knuckles white in the dim light filtering through the window."Why tonight?" I asked."Because I was there to hear it.""That's not an answer.""It's the only one I have."I studied his profile. The tight set of his jaw. The way his eyes refused to meet mine even now. Something had shifted in that ballroom. Some wall cracking that I hadn't expected

  Rosa's Pov I could feel the warmth of his breath against my mouth. Then he pulled back. "I can't," he said, stepping away, his voice rough with something that sounded almost like panic. "Control. I need control." "Daniel…" "I should go to bed." He raked a hand through his hair, refusing to meet my eyes. "We both should." "You almost kissed me." "I know what I almost did." "Then why did you stop?" "Because if I start, I don't know if I can stop." His jaw tightened, the wall sliding back into place faster than I could process what had just happened between us. "And that terrifies me." "Everything terrifies you, Daniel. Everything that matters." "That's not true." "Then prove it." I stepped closer. "Stay

Rosa's PovThe couch caught us both when my knees buckled.Daniel's hands stayed in my hair, mine gripped the front of his shirt, and neither of us came up for air for a long time."Rosa." His voice came out rough against my mouth."Don't stop.""I'm not stopping."He kissed me again, slower this time, one hand sliding from my hair down to the curve of my jaw, tilting my face exactly where he wanted it. I let him. My fingers uncurled from his shirt, spread flat against his chest instead, feeling his heartbeat hammering hard beneath my palms.It was nothing like the first night in Vegas. Frantic and desperate, driven by tequila and grief. This was something different. Something that knew exactly what it was doing."Tell me something real," I said against his mouth.He pulled back an inch, just enough to look at my face. "What?""Anything. Tell me one real thing right now.""I've wanted this every day since Vegas." His thumb traced slowly along my jaw. "Every single day, I've wanted thi

Rosa's PovThe apartment was still dark when I gave up on sleep entirely.Four forty-five in the morning. Daniel's office light still on under the door. I'd been lying in bed staring at the ceiling for two hours since our conversation, his voice still in my head.I don't regret the kiss.I got up. Wrapped the robe tighter around myself. Knocked twice on his office door before pushing it open.He looked up from his laptop, something startled moving across his face before his expression settled back into careful control."You're still up," he said."So are you.""I have work.""At five in the morning?""The Singapore team doesn't respect time zones." He leaned back in his chair, studying me. "What do you want, Rosa?""To talk." I crossed to the small couch along the office wall, the one I suspected he slept on sometimes when work ran this late. "Just talk. No fighting, no accusations. Two people having a conversation.""About what?""Anything." I tucked my feet beneath me. "Tell me some