My husband divorced me on national TV. He didn't know he just fired the genius behind his entire empire. novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Rent's Due

Nolan Stroud's front door opened before Dani knocked twice.

It was eleven at night, and he was in a gray shirt with the sleeves pushed up.

He had been awake, and he did not pretend otherwise.

"Dani," he said. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes."

She walked past him into the hall and held up the folded page from her jeans.

"Three weeks of waiting is wrong," she said. "This paper is wrong. It says you want nothing from me."

He shut the door behind her.

"It says what's true."

"Then we have a problem, Nolan. Because I want something from you."

His hand stopped on the lock.

She watched it stop.

"The terms were nothing between us but the desk," she said. "You wrote that. You said it with a straight face."

"I did."

"I fell asleep on your shoulder in a server room. There was no desk in that room."

"I noticed," he said quietly.

"You put my hair behind my ear."

"You were awake."

"I was awake," Dani said. "I've been awake for nine days."

She stepped in close enough to feel the heat of him through his shirt.

"Rent's due," she said.

For a long moment he did not move.

His eyes dropped to her mouth and came back up, and the look in them was not dry or watchful anymore.

"Dani, the desk is yours whatever you do tonight," he said.

His voice had gone low and rough.

"I put that on paper so you'd stop checking for a price."

"I'm not checking."

"If you walk out of here tomorrow and regret this..."

"Then I walk out," she said. "Stop reading me the rule. There's no desk here."

She took hold of his collar and pulled his head down.

He kissed her.

It was not careful.

His hand came up into her hair and the other closed around her waist.

Her back met the wall hard enough to rattle a frame.

She heard herself make a sound she did not know she had.

He broke off, breathing hard, his forehead against hers.

"Say it again," he said.

"Say what?"

"What you said backstage."

She remembered.

His hands at her collar, steady and slow, and her own mouth breaking the moment on purpose.

"You're not my husband," she said, against his lips.

"No," Nolan said. "And I'm still glad of that."

She laughed, and then he kissed her again, and the laugh turned into something else.

He lifted her off the floor.

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