Closer Than Intended
644 Words
The next morning, the memory of Damon’s hands resting gently on her shoulders haunted Eliana.
She touched the spot absentmindedly as she stared at her reflection.
She wasn’t imagining it.
Something had shifted.
The city buzzed far below as she prepared for the day, but Eliana’s mind wasn’t on meetings or appearances.
It was on Damon.
On the man who had built walls so high around himself that even he seemed trapped inside them.
When she entered the kitchen, Damon was already there — a rare sight in itself — sipping black coffee, scrolling through something on his tablet.
Their eyes met, and for once, Damon didn’t look away.
Instead, he gave a small, almost shy nod.
“Good morning,” he said.
Eliana’s heart tripped.
Not cold. Not distant.
Simply… Damon.
“Good morning,” she returned, moving cautiously toward the counter.
“I cleared your schedule today,” he said, setting down the tablet.
Surprise flickered across her face.
“You did?”
“We need a break,” he said simply. “Both of us.”
It wasn’t a request. It wasn’t an order.
It was an offering.
Before she could second-guess it, she agreed.
⸻
They drove to the countryside, far from the suffocating glass towers of the city.
Damon was quiet during the ride, but it was a comfortable silence this time, one that hummed with the unspoken understanding growing between them.
They stopped at a secluded estate he owned — a sprawling manor surrounded by woods and rolling hills.
No photographers.
No prying eyes.
Just them.
As they walked through the gardens, the conversation came easier than it ever had.
He told her about his mother — how she had taught him to play piano but had died when he was young.
How his father had raised him with an iron fist, valuing ambition above affection.
Eliana listened, her heart aching for the boy he had been — forced to become steel long before he should have known pain.
And in return, she told him about her family — her father’s debts, the desperate bargain that led her to this marriage.
By the time they reached the small pond at the edge of the property, they weren’t strangers anymore.
They were two broken people, stitched together by circumstance but held together by something far stronger than either dared to name.
Eliana kicked off her shoes and sat on the grass, toes dipping into the cool water.
Damon hesitated before joining her, loosening his tie and rolling up his sleeves.
“You know,” she said, smiling slightly, “you’re almost human when you’re not in a thousand-dollar suit.”
Damon laughed — an actual, genuine laugh.
The sound startled her, warm and rich and completely at odds with the cold man she had married.
“You bring out the worst in me,” he teased, and there was something tender in his tone that made her chest tighten.
They sat there for hours, talking about nothing and everything, until the sun began to dip below the horizon, painting the sky in shades of gold and crimson.
When Eliana shivered, Damon didn’t hesitate.
He shrugged off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders, his fingers brushing her skin.
She looked up at him, her breath catching at the way he gazed at her — like she was something precious.
Slowly, he reached out, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
“Eliana…” he whispered, voice rough with emotion.
For a moment, she thought he would kiss her.
She could feel the tension crackling between them, see the war waging behind his eyes.
But at the last second, he pulled back, closing the distance between them with a soft, lingering touch to her cheek instead.
Not yet.
But soon.
And somehow, that was enough for now.
- Writer
