“Stay tonight.”
The words lingered between them.
Not because Rowan had spoken them loudly.
If anything, he’d said them more quietly than most things.
Yet somehow those two simple words carried more weight than anything else he’d said all evening.
Emma looked up at him.
The city lights stretched beyond the windows behind him, scattered across the darkness like distant stars. Somewhere deeper inside the mansion, the grandfather clock marked another passing minute.
Rowan waited.
No pressure.
No expectation.
No attempt to convince her.
Just patience.
And for the first time since she’d met him, Emma saw something surprisingly vulnerable in his expression.
Uncertainty.
Tiny.
Brief.
Almost impossible to notice.
Most people would have missed it.
Emma didn’t.
The realization warm
