All Chapters of After Midnight With Him : Chapter 121 - Chapter 129

Sophia’s POVBy the time the last car left, the quiet felt almost physical.The big rooms that had been full of music and people and the careful noise of a public wedding were emptied down to low lights and the soft movement of staff finishing the final tasks. Damien closed the door to the private suite behind us and the remaining sound of the venue dropped away at once. For a moment neither of us moved. We just stood there in the sudden stillness like people who had stepped out of weather into a sealed room.I reached up and started taking out the pins from my hair. Then the earrings. Then the necklace that had felt too delicate for how tightly I had been holding myself together most of the day. Each piece landed on the side table with a small, ordinary sound. When I sat on the edge of the bed, the weight of the hours settled all the way into my body at once.Damien watched me for a second, then crossed the room and crouched down in front of me.I expected a comment about the guest l

Damien’s POVI woke before she did and spent a full minute watching the light move across her face before I decided not to waste the day in bed.Not entirely, anyway.When Sophia finally stirred, I told her to dress for walking, not for public view. No schedule. No driver waiting at the bottom of the steps. Just the two of us and the parts of the estate I had never bothered to open for anyone else. She raised an eyebrow at the mystery of it, but she came with me anyway, one hand occasionally resting at her stomach as we moved through the quieter wing of the house.“You’re being deliberate,” she said.“I’m being selfish.” I opened a door at the end of the corridor and stepped aside. “I want you in the rooms that used to be mine alone.”The library was first.It was a long, high room with windows that caught the morning cleanly and shelves that climbed far enough to need the old rolling ladder. Most guests, on the rare occasions I had allowed any into the house, never made it past the m

Damien’s POVThe phone rang just as I was starting to believe the evening might stay quiet.Sophia was at the counter with a glass of water, hair pinned loosely up, wearing one of my shirts over soft pants because the house was cool and she had claimed it without discussion. I had been watching her more than the message thread on my tablet. When Austin’s name lit the screen, the old reflex moved first—answer, assess, solve. I picked up on the second ring.“What is it?”“We’ve got a problem with the Singapore transfer,” Austin said without preamble. “The counterparties moved the window and legal is saying if we don’t respond tonight we lose the preferred position. I need you to look at the revised terms.”I listened for another few seconds while he outlined the rest. Numbers. Timing. The familiar pressure of a deal that believed it was the most important thing in the room. Across the kitchen Sophia glanced over, one eyebrow slightly raised, already prepared to lose me to the office for

Damien’s POVThe evening had already turned soft when she said it.We were in the upper sitting room, the one with the wide windows and the city reduced to a distant scatter of lights. Sophia was half-curled against the arm of the sofa, bare feet tucked under her, wearing that same stolen shirt of mine that had somehow become part of the household. She looked thoughtful for a moment, then mischievous in a way that always meant trouble I was going to enjoy.“You know,” she said, “for a man who claims he knows enough, you still haven’t taught me anything practical.”I set my glass down. “I taught you how to trust me.”“That was emotional coursework.” She waved a hand. “I meant something new. Something less noble and more interesting.”“Dangerous category.”“You’re avoiding the challenge.”I leaned back and studied her. The pregnancy had only made the lines of her face softer, the amusement brighter. She was safe. She was teasing me on purpose. The combination did more to undo my careful