After I Saved Him, My CEO Said We Were Strangers novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Terrace

He took me through the terrace doors and around a corner, into a strip of dark between two potted trees.

The ballroom music thumped faintly through the glass behind us.

The October air was cold on my bare arms.

"Let go of my wrist," I said.

He let go.

He didn't step back.

"You were incredible in there," he said.

"Don't."

"I mean it."

"I don't care what you mean." My heart was going so hard I could feel it in my sling. "You stood up in front of three hundred people and thanked me for my service."

"I know."

"Do you? I took a beam for you, Declan. I didn't ask for a medal. I didn't even ask for a thank-you card. I wanted you to look at me for one second in that hospital room like you knew who I was."

"I did look at you."

"You looked at a spot on the wall."

He put both hands on the stone rail behind me, one on each side of my hips.

He wasn't touching me.

There were eight inches between us, and I could feel every one of them.

"There are things I can't say yet," he said. "Please, Hallie. Not tonight. I'm asking you to trust me for seventy-two more hours."

"Trust you?"

"I know how that sounds."

"Do you know how it sounded the first time?" I heard my voice go thin. "At breakfast in Reno. You buttered your toast and you said, 'Glad we caught it before it counted.'"

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