Chapter Fourteen: The Second First Time
Their dates had become a ritual, something both Nathaniel and Rachel unconsciously began to look forward to. From quiet dinners to lunch breaks taken together in the staff lounge, they were growing into each other’s rhythms. It wasn’t a grand romance yet—it was still new, still fragile—but it was real. And for the first time in a long while, Rachel felt like someone truly saw her.
Nathaniel, on the other hand, was slowly unraveling his tightly-wound nature. With Rachel, he smiled more. Laughed. Even his employees whispered how the once-icy CEO now looked... different.
And then came that night.
It was a Friday, the kind where the sky was ink-black and the city below pulsed with light. Nathaniel invited her to his penthouse, nothing fancy, just a m
