Corner Office Confessions

Chapter 10: What the Terrace Knew

The words hung between them, charged and impossible to take back. Nathan's control — the same control that had built an empire, that never wavered in boardrooms or crises — cracked wide open.

"Nerisa." Her name came out rough, half-warning, half-plea.

"I'm still here," she said softly. "I'm not asking you to be careful."

That was all it took.

He closed the distance between them, one hand rising to her jaw, tilting her face up to his like he needed to be certain before he let himself have this. She didn't pull away. If anything, she leaned in, answering the question in his eyes before he could ask it.

When he finally kissed her, it wasn't gentle — it was everything he'd been holding back for weeks, every stolen glance and unfinished sentence poured into a single moment. She kissed him back just as fiercely, hands fisting in his jacket, the city lights blurring around them until nothing existed but the two of them and the terrace and the finally of it all.

He pulled back only far enough to rest his forehead against hers, breathing unsteady. "I told myself I wouldn't do that."

"You're bad at keeping promises to yourself."

"Apparently." A low laugh escaped him, rare and real. "I don't do this, Nerisa. I don't let people close."

"I know." She traced a hand down his jaw, grounding him. "You're doing it anyway."

He caught her hand, pressed a kiss to her palm, something fragile and unguarded moving across his features. "God help me, I am."

Neither of them mentioned the gala waiting inside, or the board members who might notice they were both missing, or the mountain of complications a single kiss had just created. For one more minute, none of that mattered.

There was only the terrace, the city, and the unraveling of a man who'd sworn he'd never let anyone this close again.