Two weeks had passed, and Aria didn’t want to admit it-not even to herself-but something had shifted.
It wasn’t love. At least, she wouldn’t call it that.
It was just… coffee dates.
Just… long conversations about art and life.
Just… Killian.
She told herself it was casual. That she wasn’t falling. Couldn’t fall. But then there were the little things - the way he laughed easily with her, the way he listened. Not just waited to speak.
And sometimes, when he thought she wasn’t looking, he’d stare at her like she was a puzzle he couldn’t solve - and didn’t want to.
She tried to keep her guard up. Tried to remind herself who he was: Killian Stone. Heir to Stone Global. A man with a schedule, a reputation, a hundred things more permanent than a girl with a camera and a complicated past.
