As Damon sat there, his thoughts circled the same way they had for the last hour. It wasn't doubt. It was overthinking. Every angle.
Every word. Every second of how this was about to play out. He wasn't nervous about her answer, he was stuck on the weight of asking.
Something pulled at him then. An instinct, maybe.
He glanced toward the stairs at the far side of the lobby, just as the soft sound of a heel clicked against the polished marble floor.
The moment he saw it, he stood.
Straightened his back.
His breath hitched without him meaning it to.
And then she appeared.
Svetlana stepped down from the landing, calm and effortless, like she had been walking into rooms like this her whole life.
But to him, it wasn't about the setting.
It was her.
And it hit him harder than he expected.
This was it.
The moment before everything changed.
He was out of words to describe how she looked right now. But he tried to find them anyway.
