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They had decided they would just leave it as an open-ended engagement Scary prospect as it had been, she had even started looking for a new job

The walls felt like they would cave in on them and trap them in the tension forever as the steel doors of the elevator closed and they were carried to the penthouse suite

The unobstructed panoralass balconies didn’t fascinate her as they usually did The glittering dia s, the unique artwork alongside stunning artifactsnothing held her interest tonight

It was the silent man who did

Without taking his gaze off of her, he undid his cuffs Next caaze, even as the shadow of his olive skin under the shirt beckoned

The colules of his face

“Da”

Not even Jackson’s ugly na shredded her composure as Stefan’s silence did

His olive green gaze was hard, flinty even “I have never been maneuvered into a corner so publicly and so irrevocably, bella I think I have been rendered mute”

Maneuvered? Her stoer in his words, no resentered there on a razor’s edge, waiting to strike

“Stefan, I don’t knohat came over me I have never lost my temper like that”

His posture screa but Clio knew he noticed every breath she took, every nuance that crossed her face

“I know it’s not so you ask a friend over dinner, but I would owe you” Shaking her head, Clio caught the words in her ht she would beg alie into reality

She reconsidered it in her own head

If she didn’t value herself, no one else would Not Jackson, not the world and definitely not Stefan