The room fell into a heavy, weighted silence, the kind that feels thick enough to touch. Both Damian and Alina remained motionless, suspended in a moment that neither had expected. The only sound was the synchronized, frantic rhythm of their beating hearts.
Alina bit her lip almost immediately after the word left her mouth. The "No" had been instinctive, a visceral rejection of the idea of being without him that terrified her more than the fever ever could. She waited, her breath held, for him to argue, to mock her, or to tell her why she was wrong. But he didn't.
He just sat there, his large hand still resting against her waist, feeling the heat of her skin. In that silence, they weren't a CEO and a debt-ridden girl; they were just two people trying to survive a storm they hadn't seen coming.
