Clara sat frozen, phone grasped in her hand as if it were stone.
Her thumb hovered over the replay button, but she couldn't quite find the energy to press it again. Not yet. Once had been enough. The voice message had only taken six seconds to play. But it could have lasted an eternity.
"There's something I need to tell you. And I think you already know."
It was not a tease. It was not flirtatious. There was no smile in his tone this time, no winking aside. He sounded… weary. Exposed.
Truthful.
And that scared her more than if he had flat-out lied to her.
Because if Damien Reynolds—billionaire CEO, emotionally unavailable, intensely perceptive and impeccably well-put-together Damien—was the same Damien who whispered his way into her nights, then…
Then all of this was real.
Too real
