The next few days passed like a dream Cassie didn’t know she was allowed to have.
It wasn’t just about Luke anymore. Or the deal. Or pretending. Something had shifted. It wasn’t in the dramatic declarations or the cameras that followed them. It was in the quieter things—the pauses, the silence between words, the way Luke looked at her now like she wasn’t a problem to solve but a person he wanted to understand.
That terrified her more than anything.
She hadn’t moved back into the penthouse yet. After his grand apology, Cassie had agreed to meet with Luke privately, away from the buzz, away from public eyes, to talk things through. She wasn’t going to fall back into his arms because he showed up with a muffin.
But she had taken the muffin.
They met again two days later. This time at a q
