It was past midnight, and Vale Systems' executive floor was empty except for the war room.
Blueprints sprawled across the long glass table, peppered with coffee stains, sticky notes, and open laptops. The soft hum of the city outside was the only sound besides the occasional clack of Grace keyboard.
She leaned over a schematic, brow furrowed. "You can't divert traffic from two arterial roads and expect pedestrian flow to increase. It'll bottleneck the entire northeast quadrant."
Liam , seated across from her with his sleeves rolled to his elbows as he studied the plan. "So we shift the hub. Move it closer to the transit corridor?"
"Exactly. Anchor it with local vendors, not luxury brands. Make it feel like it belongs to the neighborhood."
He nodded slowly, impressed. "You do this in your sleep, don't you?"
She gave a soft laugh. "What, run infrastructure circles around billionaires? Pretty much."
Their eyes met across the table. Too long. Too loaded.
Liam stood and walked around to her side. He didn't touch her, but his presence was magnetic close enough to feel the heat of him, the subtle pull.
"You've rebuilt half this project in under two weeks," he said, voice low. "No one's ever challenged me like this."
Grace's breath caught. "That sounds like a warning."
"It's a compliment."
She turned to face him, lips parted slightly, heart pounding with something she didn't want to name.
"This was supposed to be professional," she said.
"I know."
"We had rules."
"We broke them the moment we stopped seeing each other as enemies."
The silence wrapped around them, dense and electric. He reached out, fingers brushing hers just barely.
"Grace ," he said, like her name was the only thing grounding him.
And then…
Her phone buzzed Twice from a notification
Liam's phone rang at the same moment.
They both froze.
He checked the caller ID, jaw tightening. The name flashing on the screen sent a ripple through the air.
"Lillian Carter."
Elena watched the shift in his face which was quite hard to read . She stepped back like something inside her snapped shut.
"Is there a problem?" she asked, her tone sharper than she intended.
He didn't answer right away. "It's… complicated."
"Of course it is." She closed her laptop in one quick motion. "This was a mistake."
"Grace "
"I should've known better." Her voice cracked just slightly , she didn't why she was feeling this way all of a sudden "You don't build walls like yours unless there's something or someone you're trying to forget."
He stepped forward. "That's not fair."
"No. What's not fair is thinking I was the only one risking something by being here."
The tension shattered. Not with a kiss, but with a silence more intimate than touch.
She grabbed her coat, her voice barely steady. "You want my strategy? Fine. You'll have it. But from now on business only."
Liam didn't stop her as she walked out.
But his eyes followed her until the door closed.
And even then, he didn't move