EMILY
The next few days passed in a strange mix of quiet anticipation and a low hum of anxiety. Nicholas was different… still him, still impossibly composed and infuriatingly attractive but now there was a new edge to him. Sharper. Like he was preparing for something. I didn’t need the details to feel it in the air between us.
The fundraiser was coming up fast, and I kept telling myself it was just another event. But that wasn’t true. Not really.
Because this wasn’t just a party. This was me, on display. Me, next to him. The very picture of everything I was afraid I couldn’t live up to.
Nicholas… the golden boy, the perfect man, the polished businessman who looked like he belonged on the cover of a magazine. And me? I was the ex-con who never even finished college. A girl with a past n
