The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 280

Chapter 200: A Family?-1

Clara

We decided on a whim… some time for just the two of us.

Ethan and I checked our schedules. He had free time until Tuesday, but I… I had to rearrange a couple of things, nothing serious, nothing I couldn’t take care of when I got back to the office.

We both wanted an intimate celebration of our engagement. We knew everything that awaited us afterward, so some time to relax, just the two of us, would be perfect.

We went to a cabin we hadn’t visited in a long time.

It felt good to be back…. the last time we came was shortly after our wedding, when the honeymoon phase was in full swing, so I have fond memories here.

The atmosphere in that cabin is different. I don’t know if it’s the silence, the wood creaking softly in the cool evening air, or the way the world seems to have stopped outside… but in here, everything feels slower, more real… more ours.

I’m standing by the window, a hot mug in my hands, watching the wind gently stir the tree branches. There’s no city noise, no ringing phones, no schedules to keep. It’s just him and me. Ethan…

I hear his footsteps before I see him. That way he has of approaching silently, yet filling the space with his presence. And when his arms encircle my waist from behind… I close my eyes for a second.

“You slip away from me too easily,” he murmurs near my ear.

I smile. “I’m here.”

“Yes… but overthinking.”

He’s right, he’s always right when it comes to me.

I set the mug aside and turn in his arms. His gaze is on me, calm, gentle… different from the man who leads companies, makes decisions, controls everything. Here… it’s just Ethan. My Ethan.

“I like this place,” I tell him.

“Since I bought it years ago… you’re the only person who’s ever come. It feels good to come back, just the two of us, and use it like this…”

“Like what?”

His fingers slowly travel up my arm, stopping at my shoulder.

“With someone I really want here.”

My chest tightens slightly because I understand what he’s saying. And what he’s not saying, too.

The two days pass as if time has surrendered to us. We cook together… or at least we try. Ethan insists on

Chapter 200

helping, even though it’s clearly not his forte.

425 Points

1 see him trying to chop vegetables with absurd concentration, as if he were negotiating a million–dollar

contract.

“That’s not how you chop it I tell him, laughing.

“I’m improvising.”

“You’re ruining that carrot.”

“I’m being creative.”

I can’t help but laugh, and he ends up laughing too, setting the knife aside and coming closer to me as if that were his real goal from the start.

“Come here,” he says, taking me by the waist.

“Ethan… I’m cooking.”

“Me too.”

“No, you’re in the way.”

“Depends…” he murmurs, leaning towards my neck.

His warm breath sends shivers down my spine, and in seconds… the cooking ceases to matter. Like so many other times.

We eat late, sitting across from each other, with imperfect but perfectly adequate dishes, and a bottle of wine that he opens with that natural elegance he has for everything.

“This is surprisingly good,” he says.

“Because I made it.”

“I helped.”

“No.”

୮

“I was there.”

“That’s true.”

He stares at me, and that look… The way he observes me… as if he’s taking in every detail… makes me feel something in my chest that I can’t quite explain.

“What?” I ask.

He shakes his head gently.

“Nothing… I just… like this.”

“This?”

“You… here… with me… nothing else.”

Chapter

+25 Points

Hook duwn for a second because I feel the same way, and that… is a little scary. But it also… calms me.

“That night, the cold intensifies. We light the fireplace and stay there on the sofa, covered with a blanket,

my head resting on his chest, listening to the rhythm of his breathing. We don’t talk much; there’s no need.

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