nothing happened
809 Words
The word nothing should have ended it.
It didn’t.
Because Iris couldn’t stop thinking about the way Damon had said it.
Now I’m starting to think that was a mistake.
A mistake.
As if she was something he could afford to regret.
As if she wasn’t still sitting in Clara’s mansion hours later, pretending to scroll through her phone while her entire body remembered the kitchen that morning.
Clara was upstairs getting ready for work.
Damon was somewhere in the house doing whatever billionaires did when they weren’t emotionally ruining her life.
Iris told herself she should leave.
She didn’t.
Instead, she sat on the living room couch pretending she belonged there.
The front door opened.
She didn’t look up at first.
Footsteps entered slowly.
Controlled.
Familiar.
“I thought you left.”
Damon.
Of course.
Iris kept her eyes on her phone. “I’m still deciding if I want to forgive your sister for existing.”
A quiet pause.
Then—
“She likes you more than anyone else in her life.”
“That’s concerning for her social circle.”
That earned a small breath of laughter from him.
Iris finally looked up.
He was standing near the doorway, sleeves slightly rolled up, tie gone now, looking less CEO and more dangerously human.
That version of him was worse.
Much worse.
“Clara went to work,” he said.
“I know.”
“So why are you still here?”
Iris shrugged. “I like your couch.”
“That’s a lie.”
“It’s a comfortable couch.”
His eyes held hers for a second too long.
Then he stepped further into the room.
“I need to ask you something.”
Her stomach tightened instantly.
“No.”
“I haven’t asked it yet.”
“Still no.”
Damon stopped a few feet away from her.
Close enough again.
Always close enough.
“Iris,” he said quietly.
The way he said her name again made her want to forget every argument she had ever made in her life.
“What?” she asked, too quickly.
A pause.
Something shifted in his expression.
Less teasing now.
More serious.
“I didn’t mean what I said this morning the way you think I did.”
Her heart stumbled. “Which part?”
“The part where I said it was a mistake.”
Silence.
Iris went still.
Damon exhaled slowly, like he was choosing his words carefully for once.
“I didn’t mean you were the mistake.”
Her grip tightened around her phone.
“Then what was the mistake?”
His gaze dropped briefly, then returned to hers.
“Waiting this long.”
The air left the room.
Completely.
Iris forgot how to breathe properly.
“That’s—” she started, then stopped.
Damon stepped closer again.
This time she didn’t move back.
That was her second mistake.
“I’ve known you since we were kids,” he said quietly. “And I kept telling myself there was nothing there.”
Her pulse thundered.
“And now?”
His voice lowered.
“Now I can’t look at you without noticing you.”
Iris swallowed hard.
“That sounds like a problem.”
“It is.”
Her laugh came out weaker than she wanted. “Good. Glad we agree.”
Damon’s eyes flicked to her mouth for half a second.
Then back up.
“I don’t know how to stop it,” he admitted.
That was the moment everything tilted.
Because Damon King didn’t admit things.
Not weakness. Not uncertainty. Not anything that wasn’t controlled.
And yet he was standing there like he’d already lost control of something he couldn’t name.
Iris stood slowly.
Now they were the same height.
Too close.
Too real.
“You should stop,” she said softly.
“I know.”
A pause.
Neither of them moved.
Then Damon spoke again, quieter this time.
“I don’t want to.”
The words landed between them like something irreversible.
Iris’s breath caught.
This was the part where she should walk away.
This was the part where she should remember Clara.
Remember boundaries.
Remember every reason this was a bad idea.
Instead—
She didn’t move.
Damon’s gaze softened slightly, like he noticed that.
Like he understood exactly what that meant.
The sound of the front door opening snapped everything apart again.
Clara’s voice rang through the house.
“I’M BACK AND I NEED—”
She stopped mid-sentence as she walked into the room.
Her eyes shifted between them instantly.
Slowly.
Suspiciously.
“…Why do you two look like you just argued or kissed or committed a crime together?”
Iris grabbed the nearest random object on the table.
“I was just leaving.”
Damon didn’t look away from Iris when he answered.
“So was I.”
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