31. Damian
CHAPTER 31
DAMIAN
W e’re tangled together in the aftermath, limbs overlapping, skin still warm, breath finally starting to slow.
Her head rests on my chest, one arm draped across my stomach. I run my fingers slowly through her hair, savoring the silence, the calm, the impossible fullness I feel with her in my arms.
Bzzz… bzzz…
The old business phone again. It’s stopped and started half a dozen times now, insistent but ignored.
I tense.
“You should check it,” Isabelle says quietly, lifting her head to look at me.
I raise an eyebrow. “Thought you liked me better when I didn’t.”
She smiles faintly, reaches across the bed, grabs the phone from the nightstand drawer, and drops it into my hand. “Go ahead. Just don’t disappear again.”
I sit up slowly, the cool air brushing against my skin. Her gaze stays on me—steady, calm, and trusting.
I glance at the screen. There’s a voicemail message from Clara.
Her voice is tight but triumphant. “It’s done. Vincent pushed too hard. He tried to move on the Braithwaite account before the board approved the merger. They’re not happy. Neither is Veridian Holdings’ legal counsel.”
I sit up straighter, heart ticking a little faster.
Clara continues, “Internal investigation’s opening. SEC may get involved. I don’t know what you said to Braithwaite, but whatever it was… it worked. You’re not out. Not yet.”
The message ends.
I sit there, phone heavy in my hand, staring at the wall like I need a minute to catch up.
Isabelle touches my arm. “What is it?”
I look at her, the woman I walked away from my entire life and livelihood for.
“Vincent overplayed his hand,” I say slowly. “Tried to cut too deep. The board’s turning on him. Braithwaite might blow the whole deal wide open.”
Her lips part. “You’re serious?”
I nod. “He thought I was done. That walking away made me weak.”
Her smile is quiet but fierce. “That was his mistake.”
My chest tightens. Not because I feel power returning but because I don’t need it anymore.
That’s what makes me dangerous now.
I toss the phone onto the bed and pull her back into my arms. “You said I could check,” I murmur. “You didn’t say I had to respond.”
She laughs, soft and low, and presses a kiss to my jaw.
Outside, the world is shifting again, but inside this room, I’ve already made the most important move I’ll ever make.
And this time, I’m not playing for a throne.
I’m playing for us .