The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 232

Chapter 163 Your Company

Clara

Dinner ends without me noticing when time passed.

There were no grand gestures, no extraordinary words, no impossible promises… But there was something better. Peace of mind… The kind that doesn’t demand of you, that doesn’t push you, that doesn’t make you doubt everything you say or feel.

As we leave the restaurant, the cold night air immediately envelops me. I instinctively cross my arms over

my chest, rubbing them lightly.

“It’s cold…” I murmured.

I can’t take another second step when I feel the movement next to me, Ethan.

He takes off his jacket without saying anything and, with a naturalness that disarms me, places it on my

shoulders. The gesture is simple, But in me… it is not.

The heat of the fabric covers me, but that’s not what makes me close my eyes for a second.

It is the aroma, his perfume. The one I recognize even without seeing it, the one that stays in my memory…. on the skin… in something deeper that I don’t know how to explain.

I breathe and something inside me… is activated.

It’s not just wish, it’s not just memory. It is… closeness, it is home.

I slowly open my eyes and adjust the jacket around my body.

“Thank you,” I say quietly.

He just nods, as if it were nothing important. But it is, it is for me.

We start walking back to the hotel, the city is still alive around us, but I… I’m somewhere else.

In details, in small things. In how he keeps an eye on my step.

How, as I cross the street, his hand gently lands on my back, guiding me.

Protecting me, taking care of me. And it’s not exaggerated, it’s not invasive. It is… natural.

As if it had always been like this, as if we had never been apart.

That… It makes me think too much.

When we reach another corner, his hand reaches for mine, he doesn’t ask, he doesn’t hesitate. Just take it.

And I… I do not withdraw it, on the contrary.

My fingers settle between his almost instinctively, and then I feel it.

That warmth that connection. That silence that says more than any conversation.

1 look down at our clasped hands. And a question pops into ray mind, softly. but clear Has the discomfort passed yet?

I blink. Because… it feels that way.

As if everything from yesterday had been left behind, as if there had been no discomfort, doubt, tension.

As if we were just… here. Walking together, again, And that baffles me a bit.

But not in a bad way, just… It makes me aware.

About how easy it would be to let go, about how much I still feel.

I look up at him, he’s looking at me too. And there are no questions, in his eyes.

Just… calm.

We continue walking like this, without letting go of our hands, until we reach the hotel.

The lobby is quiet, lit with that understated elegance that these places have.

We went in together and for a moment… I stop, because I know what’s coming.

I know that this is the point where normally everyone goes their own way, where they say “good right” and separate. But… I don’t want it to be like that.

Not today.

We go up in the elevator, silence returns. But it doesn’t weigh, it feels… loaded with something different. Of expectation, of something that no one says out loud.

When the doors open on our flat, we walk out.

We walk down the corridor slowly, without haste. As if lengthening those seconds were necessary.

I stop in front of my bedroom door, pull out the card.

But before I open the door… I speak.

“Tomorrow I must go back to New York,” I say, almost in a whisper.

It’s not a complaint, it’s a reality.

He does not hesitate.

“We’ll come back together.”

I look at him.

“I’ll buy your ticket… and mine.”

His tone is firm, decisive. And something in my chest… settles.

r

“Okay.”

I open the door, we go in. The silence of the place welcomes us.

I close it behind us and turn slightly toward him, taking off the jacket he lent me it still holds his warmth And his scent

I hand it to him.

“Thank you…”

He takes it, but neither of us moves. We stay there, face to face. And then I think about it, I feel it.

This… This saying goodbye now… him leaving and me staying here. It feels… Ridiculous, unnecessary. Nonsense… we live together, don’t we?

After everything that happened, after what we talked about.

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