ROSETTE’S POV
Heat flooded my cheeks.
“You had no right to watch that.”
“No,” he agreed. “I didn’t.”
“Then why—”
“Because I’m selfish.” The admission was simple. Unashamed. “Because I’ve waited two hundred years to feel something other than emptiness, and then I walked into that boardroom and my entire world caught fire. Because watching you, even through a screen, even from a distance, is the closest I’ve felt to alive since I lost everything that mattered.”
The words hung between us, heavy with implications I wasn’t ready to examine. They did things to my chest, and the sincerity in them was almost disarming.
“That’s not an excuse,” I managed.
“No. It’s an explanation.” He held my gaze. “I’m not going to apologize for wanting to see you. To know you. To understand what makes Rose
