The rain had slowed by evening, leaving the city wrapped in a soft hush. Ava sat at the small desk, pretending to type notes into her laptop, though her mind hadn’t focused for the last half hour. Every sense was too aware of him—Ethan stretched across the bed behind her, reviewing papers with calm detachment as though nothing had happened that morning.
But she remembered. The kiss. His words. The choice she hadn’t made.
“Are you planning to stare at that blank document all night?” His voice slid through the quiet, deep and smooth.
Her fingers froze on the keyboard. “I’m working.”
“You’ve typed three sentences in thirty minutes.”
She turned, glare sharp, but the sight of him undone—tie abandoned, shirt sleeves rolled, collar open—made her heart stumble. He set the file aside, rising w
