Page 40 of Shattered

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

I escaped to my bedroom, sitting on my bed in the dark. My fingers went to my lips without permission, like they were checking for something that hadn’t happened. Thinking about the expression on Axel’s face—want and hesitation and something deeper I didn’t know how to describe.

He’d almost kissed me.

I’d almost let him. What was that? Was our forced proximity getting to me or was it something else?

Either way, I was so completely, catastrophically screwed.

My phone buzzed.

The unknown number notification caught my eyes.

I opened the message and froze.

Unknown Number

We need to talk. It’s important. -J

CHAPTER 9

Axel

The quarterly reviewmeeting was not going according to plan.

Partly because the projections were off by three percent—unacceptable but fixable. Mostly because I couldn’t stop replaying the way Delia had leaned toward me on her balcony, how her lips had been right there, how close I’d come to doing something I’d wanted to do for seventeen years.

“Mr. Irving?”

I looked up to find twelve board members staring at me expectantly.

“Sorry. Continue.”

Robert, my CFO, cleared his throat. “I was asking about the Singapore expansion. Whether we should move forward with the revised timeline.”

Right. Singapore. Museums. Work. Things that used to consume my entire attention now felt distant compared to the memory of Delia crying against my shoulder.

“Yes,” I said. “Move forward. But get me the final numbers by Friday.”

“Of course.”

The meeting continued. I contributed when necessary, approved what needed approving, but my mind kept drifting back. To her.

“That’s settled then,” someone said, and everyone started gathering papers.

I’d apparently agreed to something. Hopefully nothing catastrophic.

As people filed out, Jessica from acquisitions paused by my chair. “That was a great point about the London partnership. Very insightful.”

I had absolutely no memory of making any point about London.

“Thank you.”

When the room finally cleared, Mark was the only one left, looking at me suspiciously.

“So what happened?” he asked.