Cassie sat curled up on the plush sofa in the corner of the penthouse library, a book open on her lap but her mind far from the printed words. The silence of the place was something she had gotten used to, but tonight, it felt a little too still.
She had been trying to distract herself, to forget about the clause, the revised NDA, and her mixed emotions toward Luke. But the conversation from earlier kept looping in her head. His defense. His half-apology. The way he’d looked at her like he wanted to say more and couldn’t.
Just as she finally forced herself to focus on the page again, she heard the sound of a door creaking open upstairs, followed by muffled footsteps. Curious, she set the book aside and padded barefoot toward the hallway that led to Luke’s home office.
The door wasn’t fu
