Act Like You Love Me (Jessica) novel Chapter 185

t being stubborn is a massive waste of my me.” He stepped inside, closing the door behind him with a soft, final click.

He didn’t move toward the living room or the couch.

He just stood there, his presence far too large for my cramped entryway, his eyes scanning me with an intensity that felt like he was reading my source code.

“It’s three in the morning,” I whispered, finally breaking away from his gaze.

“Exactly. The roads are empty. You need to get out of this room, Daphne. I can see the walls closing in on you from here.”

I didn’t argue. I didn’t have the energy left to fight him, and the truth was, he was right. I’d been staring at the ceiling until the shadows started to look like Kyle’s silhouette.

Five minutes later, I was in the passenger seat of his car, the door closing with a heavy, expensive thud that seemed to shut out the rest of the world.

He pulled away from the curb without a word. I sat there, my head resting against the cool glass of the window, watching the city slide past.

At this hour, everything was different-all amber streetlights and empty intersections.

We passed the occasional taxi and the lonely, lit windows of other people who couldn’t sleep, but for the most part, we were alone.

It should have been strange, being in a car in the middle of the night with my boss, driving toward nowhere specific. But strangely, it wasn’t. I couldn’t explain that, so I didn’t try.

We just drove.

David didn’t push me. He didn’t fill the silence with corporate platitudes or ask follow-up questions about why I’d sounded so wrecked on the phone,

He just drove with one hand easy on the wheel, his movements fluid and sure,

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Somewhere around the fourth traffic light, I felt the tension, finally start to drain, my shoulders dropping from where they’d been sitting up near my ears since I’d woken up gasping for air.

“It was a nightmare,” I said eventually, my voice barely audible against the hum of the engine. I kept my eyes on the window.

“About Kyle. I know it was just a dream. I know that. But when I woke up, I just needed-” I stopped, the words catching in my throat.

David said nothing for a long moment, the passing streetlights costing shadows across his face.

“You don’t have to explain,” he said finally.

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Chapter 185

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“I called you at 2:00 AM, sir. People don’t just call their bosses in the middle of the night because they had a bad dream.”

“I agree.”

“That usually warrants some kind of explanation.

He glanced at me briefly, his expression unreadable in the dim light of the dashboard. “Does it?”

I tilted my body to look at him properly. He was watching the road again, his profile as sharp and even as ever.

I couldn’t tell if he was being kind or just pragmatic, but with David, those two things were starting to look identical.

I turned back to the window and let the silence settle between us. It wasn’t a heavy silence anymore; it was a buffer.

He didn’t push me to talk about the details of the nightmare, and I didn’t ask him why a man who valued his time more than anything else had actually shown up at my door.

We just moved through the city, the orange streetlights stroking over the hood of the car in hypnotic pattern.

The cool air from the vents and the faint, clean scent of his cologne slowly pulled the last of the knots out of my muscles.

For the first time since I’d seen Kyle in that coffee shop, my brain felt quiet.

When he pulled back onto my street, the neighborhood was exactly as I’d left it: dark, silent and empty.

David eased the car to a stop in front of my building, letting the engine idle in a low purr that felt louder than it actually was in the midnight quiet.

I reached for my seatbelt, but the mechanism jammed, catching with a sharp metallic click. I had to fumbled with it for a second, a small, clumsy pause that broke my rhythm.

When I finally got it loose and turned to thank him, I found him already looking at me, his hands resting loosely on the steering wheel.

Our eyes locked, and I completely forgot what I was going to say

The car felt vacuum-sealed. I don’t know how many seconds passed like that-it couldn’t have been many-before David blinked, shifting his gaze back to the windshield.

The moment folded itself up and vanished before I could even name it.

“Go inside, Daphne,” he said, his voice regaining its level, cool tone. “Take the day off. Your presence wouldn’t be so much of a need to me if you’re hallucinating from lack of sleep.”

“Mr Tyrone, I don’t need to-”

“Take the day,” he repeated.

I almost argued. I looked at his profile, the sharp line of his jaw illuminated by the faint glow of the instrument panel, and then I didn’t.

“Thank you,” I said quietly. “For tonight. You really didn’t have to”

He didn’t respond to that, which I was starting to realize was his way of saying he’d do it again.

I got out of the car and walked up the path to the front door,

When I reached the porch, I couldn’t help but turn back. He was still there, the car idling at the curb like a silent sentinel.

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