Aria's POV
Damon looked away and stepped back on his own. The warmth disappeared.
It kept happening. Sometimes our eyes met across the conference room, and the air would suddenly become unbearably heavy.
The mate bond would hum between us like an invisible thread pulling tighter. My pulse would race. I would feel Rhein's presence lingering deep inside Damon. Then Damon would be the first to look away.
Every single time, he always stepped back first, always restored the distance, always left me standing there with emotions I didn't want to examine. It was infuriating.
He'd been the one insisting he needed my presence to stabilize Rhein. He'd been the one who proposed those absurd dates. So why wasn't he asking for them?
Had he changed his mind? Found another way? Or had he simply deci
