Chapter 21 Stop Talking Dirty
Cassian went completely still.
The office around him seemed to fade into the background as those words settled over him.
His gaze lowered to the desk in front of him, and his thumb brushed unconsciously across his lower lip.
For perhaps the first time in years, the usually composed and untouchable Cassian Han looked genuinely flustered.
The request itself wasn't difficult.
Three simple words.
Three words people said every day.
Yet for him, those words felt far more intimate than they should have.
It wasn't because he didn't feel them. If anything, he felt them too much.
The problem was that saying them aloud felt strangely vulnerable, as though she were asking him to pry open a door he had kept locked for years and reveal everything hidden behind it.
His jaw tightened slightly.
A faint flush crept up the back of his neck.
"Juliet, let me come home first."
His voice dropped lower, rougher than before, and he loosened his tie with one hand as though the knot had suddenly become too tight around his throat.
But Juliet clearly had no intention of letting him escape.
"If you don't say it, then how will I know that you love me?"
The playful teasing in her voice softened, giving way to something more earnest.
"You've never confessed to me."
Cassian closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.
On the other end of the line, Juliet remained quiet for a moment before continuing, her voice softer now, almost vulnerable.
"Are you planning to spend our entire lifetime like this? If you never confess, how will I know that you are in love with me? Unless you say it, how will I know that you love me?"
His grip on the phone tightened.
Juliet's patience finally snapped.
"Cassian!"
The way she called his name—half frustrated, half demanding—broke through the last of his resistance.
Something inside him simply gave way.
Before he could overthink it, before he could talk himself out of it, the words left his mouth.
"I love you."
His voice came out low and rough.
He stared down at his desk, suddenly feeling more nervous than he had during any negotiation, acquisition, or billion-dollar deal in his entire life.
Then Juliet laughed.
The sound burst through the phone bright and joyful, followed by a stream of delighted giggles that made his chest tighten in a way no amount of stress or pressure ever could.
Slowly, he lowered his head and smiled.
It wasn't the controlled smile he wore in boardrooms or the faint smirk people occasionally caught during meetings. This smile was warm, helpless, and filled with a tenderness that belonged to one person and one person only.
"Alrightt now. I will be waiting for you at home. Come back soon."
Juliet's soft giggle lingered in Cassian's ears long after the words themselves had faded. A faint smile curved his lips almost involuntarily, the warmth in her voice settling deep inside his chest and softening something that had been tense all day.
"Mm."
The low hum escaped him before he even realized it.
Them. he finally ended the call.
Even then, Cassian remained standing where he was, the phone still loosely held in his hand as his gaze rested on the darkened screen.
Her laughter seemed to linger in his mind, replaying itself again and again until he found himself staring blankly ahead.
The warmth she left behind was still there, spreading through him in a way that felt unfamiliar yet strangely addictive.
When he finally lifted his head, the entire conference room came into view.
Everyone around the table was staring at him.
The atmosphere was so quiet that even the faint hum of the air conditioner seemed unusually loud.
After all, they had just witnessed something they never thought possible.
Their boss, whose expression rarely changed no matter what happened, had been smiling at his phone like an ordinary man hopelessly in love.
Not only that, but he had spoken softly, patiently, and with a tenderness none of them had ever heard before.
Most shocking of all, he had confessed his love.
The realization seemed to have collectively broken everyone's brains.
Cassian held their gazes for exactly one second.
Then the smile disappeared.
It vanished so completely that it was as though it had never existed at all.
The warmth in his eyes receded, replaced by the familiar calm indifference that had built his reputation. Without the slightest trace of embarrassment, he set his phone down on the conference table, adjusted the cuff of his sleeve, and turned his attention back to the presentation screen.
"Continue."
His deep voice echoed through the room.
The executives jolted as though waking from a dream.
Several people immediately lowered their heads.
Others scrambled to look through their reports and laptops, pretending they had been paying attention the entire time.
One unfortunate manager flipped through the wrong document twice before finally finding the correct page.
The meeting resumed.
At least on the surface.
In reality, nobody remembered a single word that was said afterward.
Every person's thoughts remained trapped on the same shocking discovery.
Their CEO was completely and utterly devoted to his girlfriend.
By the time the meeting ended, the news had already spread throughout the company at an astonishing speed.
The terrifying Cassian Han, whose presence alone could make senior executives nervous, had obediently confessed his love because his wife demanded it.
The same man who rarely explained himself to anyone apparently had endless patience when it came to Juliet.
Most surprisingly, Cassian made absolutely no effort to stop the rumors.
He neither denied them nor acknowledged them.
He simply ignored them.
And that alone was enough to confirm everything.
By the time evening arrived, he had finished the last of his work and finally headed home.
The drive back was quiet.
As the city lights passed outside the window, the tension that had followed him throughout the day gradually eased. By the time the car pulled into the driveway, the exhaustion lingering in his shoulders had become impossible to ignore.
Yet the moment he stepped through the front door, something inside him relaxed.
It happened so naturally that he barely noticed it anymore.
The pressure from work faded.
The endless meetings and responsibilities lost their weight.
Home had somehow become the one place where he could finally breathe.
His jacket hung loosely from one hand while the top button of his dress shirt had already been undone during the drive back.
A trace of fatigue remained between his brows as he walked farther inside, but the moment his gaze landed on the familiar figure curled up on the couch, even that began to disappear.
Juliet was sitting with her legs tucked beneath her, dressed in soft pajamas while watching television. The second she noticed him, her entire face lit up.
A brilliant smile spread across her lips, and her eyes sparkled with so much happiness that Cassian felt his chest tighten.
"Cassian!"
The cheerful call rang through the room.
Before he could even respond, she had already thrown aside the cushion she was holding and jumped off the couch.
Cassian barely had time to set his jacket down.
Juliet came running toward him with absolutely no regard for her own safety, her smile growing wider with every step. The sight was so familiar now that his body reacted before his mind did.
Just as she reached him and launched herself forward, his arms opened automatically. One arm wrapped securely around her waist while the other slid beneath her, catching her effortlessly before she could lose her balance.
Juliet laughed brightly as she crashed into him. The force of it made him shift back half a step, but he held her securely, his grip tightening instinctively around her. A second later, her arms were looped around his neck. Then her legs wrapped around his waist.
Cassian adjusted his hold without thinking, supporting her weight as though he had done it a thousand times before.
Their faces ended up only inches apart.
Juliet simply stared at him, her eyes shining with affection.
Cassian looked back at her, unable to look away.
Then she leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss against his cheek.
The soft touch lasted barely a second.
Yet it was enough to make his grip tighten around her again.
When she pulled back, her smile only grew brighter.
"Did you miss me?"
Cassian's breathing paused almost imperceptibly.
Looking at her now, warm and happy in his arms, he still occasionally found it difficult to believe this was real.
There had once been a time when Juliet couldn't stand the sight of him.
A time when every interaction between them ended in conflict.
Back then, he would never have imagined that she would someday greet him like this, running straight into his arms the moment he came home and clinging to him as though that was where she belonged.
Yet now she fit there so naturally that it felt as though she had always been meant to.
The realization filled his chest with a warmth so intense that it almost ached.
Still, years of habit kept his expression composed.
"No."
Juliet immediately narrowed her eyes.
Cassian ignored the suspicious look she gave him and shifted her slightly higher in his arms.
"What are you doing?" he asked, his tone calm despite the fact that he was making no real effort to put her down. "Get down."
As he spoke, he loosened one arm slightly as though intending to lower her.
Juliet instantly tightened her hold around his neck.
"No."
"Juliet."
"I don't believe you."
Her lips formed an exaggerated pout as she stared at him accusingly.
"You definitely missed me."
Cassian looked down at her stubborn expression and felt the corners of his mouth twitch.
The woman wrapped around him like a koala clearly had no intention of letting go.
"Come on, why aren't you answering me properly?"