Darren Alexander Hale woke to silence.
Not the quiet he was used to in his penthouse the kind that felt like calm after a storm but the kind that made his chest tighten. Something was wrong.
His eyes shot open. The bed beside him was empty.
He swung his legs off the mattress, muscles tense, scanning the room. Sheets rumpled. Pillow indented. The faint scent of a woman lingered in the air: soft, warm, familiar in a way he couldn't explain.
And then he saw her.
The door.
A flash of dark hair. A slender figure moving fast. She was running. Her back was to him, and she didn't look back.
Darren froze, jaw tightening. He didn't recognize her fully he didn't know her name, didn't even remember her face clearly but something inside him clicked. Something told him that whoever this woman was, she mattered.
"Wait!" he called instinctively, but she was already gone.
The hotel door closed behind her. The echo of her heels on the corridor floor was gone, leaving only the emptiness of the room and the pounding of his own heartbeat.
Darren ran a hand through his hair, frustration and curiosity warring in his chest. He replayed the night in fragments flashes of laughter, a wine glass, the warmth of someone leaning against him. It all felt real, but the details were fuzzy.
He didn't even know her name.
And yet… he needed to find out.
He sat back down on the edge of the bed, letting the cold bite at his bare skin. He didn't usually care about random encounters. He didn't usually let people slip into his life without reason. But something about her… it felt different.
Darren leaned forward, elbows on his knees, staring at the door she had disappeared through. His mind raced with questions he didn't have answers for. Who was she? Why had she left like that? And most importantly why did he feel like losing her would be a mistake he couldn't afford?
He couldn't shake the image of her back the way she had moved, fast but hesitant. Graceful, but scared. And the thought of her running from him, leaving without explanation, made his chest tighten in a way that was unfamiliar.
Darren hated uncertainty. He hated losing control. And right now, the situation was completely out of his control.
He stood abruptly, pacing the room. He didn't even know her, and yet he felt a responsibility or maybe an obsession to find her.
She's not someone I can forget, he thought. I need to know her.
He threw on a shirt and grabbed his jacket, his mind already spinning through possibilities. He knew the hotel she had stayed at. He knew the staff, the cameras, even the night manager. She might have tried to disappear, but in a city this size, no one disappeared without leaving a trace.
Darren's phone buzzed on the nightstand. A message from Lucas, his personal assistant.
"Morning, boss. Schedule's tight. Breakfast meeting in thirty?"
Darren ignored it. Work could wait. Right now, finding her finding the woman who had slipped out of his life in one heartbeat was priority number one.
He grabbed a notebook and scribbled details from memory:
Hair: dark, shoulder-length
Build: slim, graceful
Voice: soft, but confident
Scents: vanilla and citrus
Darren paused. She's meticulous. A woman like that doesn't leave a trace easily. But he would find a way. He always did.
The thought of her not knowing him and him not knowing her made a strange twist of frustration and excitement curl in his chest. He wanted her to remember him, to know who he was, to realize what she had left behind. But he also wanted to know everything about her. Her fears. Her desires. Her life.
The idea of finding her wasn't just about curiosity it was instinct. Something inside him told him this woman was important. Too important to let go.
He ran a hand down his face. He had a reputation to uphold. CEO of Hale International Group. Powerful. Dangerous in his own way. He didn't have time for distractions. And yet, he was already distracted.
He couldn't explain it. Not logically. But some things didn't need explanations. Some things simply demanded attention. And right now, she demanded it.
Darren's phone buzzed again. Another message from Lucas:
"Boss? Breakfast meeting? You're going to be late."
He ignored it. This couldn't wait.
He paced back and forth, making mental notes. Security at the hotel. CCTV footage. The concierge. He could track her. He would. He had to.
"She doesn't even know my name," he muttered to himself, voice low and rough. "But I'm going to find her anyway."
It wasn't just desire. It was more than that. There was a pull he couldn't explain. A connection that went beyond a single night. Something inside him insisted that she was someone worth searching for, worth holding onto, worth protecting.
Darren stopped pacing. He looked around the room, empty now, feeling the absence of her like a physical ache. His mind was spinning, but clarity settled over him in one sharp moment: he wasn't letting her go.
Not now. Not ever.
He pulled his jacket tighter around him, feeling the weight of responsibility and the rush of anticipation at the same time. The city was alive outside his window, busy and chaotic, but nothing mattered. Not work, not meetings, not appearances. All that mattered was finding her.
He ran a hand over his jaw, already planning. Security reports. Hotel logs. Anyone who might have seen her leave. Someone would have. Someone always did.
And when he found her… he would know everything.
Darren's jaw tightened. He didn't care if she ran. Didn't care if she tried to hide. He was going to find the woman who had slipped through his fingers, the one who had left him with only a memory of her back.
He would find her.
And when he did… she wouldn't be able to run away again.
Because he would not let her.