The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 56

CHAPTER 37 WOMAN TO WOMAN–2

“Would the beautiful tady loñor me with a dance?”

Rafael’s smile tightens almost imperceptibly.

Knox doesn’t wait for my answer–he’s already guiding me toward the dance floor, his hand firm on my

lower back.

“You know,” Rafael calls after us, “one of these days she might actually choose the rescue.”

Knox doesn’t respond. Doesn’t look back. Just pulls me closer as the jazz band slides into something slow

and sultry.

We move together in the center of the dance floor, his hand on the small of my back, my body pressed against his.

It’s intimate in a way our fucking somehow isn’t. Like being held instead of taken. Like connection instead of combat.

I notice how natural he looks in this room. How the other alphas watch him with barely concealed envy. How power radiates from him without effort, without performance–it’s simply what he is.

“Do you enjoy this?” I ask, unable to stop myself. “The politics. The maneuvering. Everyone watching your every move.”

“I tolerate it.” He sounds tired. “What I actually enjoy is knowing that every man in this room would kill to be exactly where I am right now.”

“Dancing?”

“Holding the most beautiful woman at the Summit.”

The words shouldn’t affect me. They’re probably calculated, part of the performance, exactly the kind of thing a man says when he’s been trained since birth to manipulate rooms full of powerful people.

But my stupid heart flutters anyway.

Knox lowers his mouth to my ear, and his voice becomes pure seduction.

“I’ve been thinking about how inappropriate it would be if I took you behind that Christmas tree in the corner and fucked you right under their noses.”

Heat floods through me. “That wouldn’t be very respectful to the other guests.”

“Fuck the other guests.”

I laugh despite myself–a real laugh, surprised out of me—and something in his expression softens. Just a crack in the facade. But it’s there.

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly. “For this morning. For being cold. For that pathetic forehead kiss like you were

my elderly aunt instead of the woman I’d been inside hours before.”

I want to dismiss it. Want to say I don’t care, we have a deal, I shouldn’t have expected more.

But the apology catches me off guard, and honesty slips out before hçan stop it.

“It hurt.”

His jaw tightens.

“I know. I saw it on your face when you left, and I did nothing about it.”

We sway in silence for a moment. His hand presses more firmly against my lower back, pulling me closer. When he speaks again, his voice is rougher.

“I can’t promise I won’t be an asshole again. But I shouldn’t have made you feel like you didn’t matter. Because you do.”

I don’t know what to say to that. It’s more than I expected. More than I’m prepared for.

So I deflect.

“Careful. That almost sounded like you have feelings.”

“Disgusting, isn’t it?” His lips twitch. “Don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation.”

I roll my eyes, but my chest feels lighter. The knot that’s been sitting there since this morning loosens, just a little.

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