Page 25 of One Wrong Move

His focus shifts back to me. “Yes?”

“Please don’t tell Dean I’m staying with you for the upcoming week. I get it if you feel that you have to, but I… I don’t want him to know about my life now.”

Nate’s quiet for a moment, but then he nods once. “Got it. Won’t tell anyone you’re crashing here.”

“Thank you. I just… I want a clean break. That’s what this is all about.”

“Yeah. You got it.” He takes a step out of the room, his mouth shaping into a smile. “I’ll let you—oh. Did you drop this?” He bends just on the other side of the threshold and picks up a folded piece of paper.

As he unfolds it, I see the familiar crumpled edge, and I’m off the bed in a split second. Shit.

“It must have fallen out of my backpack,” I say. It was in the front pocket, and I must have forgotten to shut it last night after I read through the list for the fifteenth time since writing it.

30 Under 30

I nab it out of his hand. Nate lets it go easily, his eyes moving to mine. Amusement dances there. “I see.”

“Did you?” I ask.

“Almost nothing. Looked intriguing, though.”

I fold it and put my hands behind my back, locking them tightly together. The paper crumbles slightly in my hold. “Just something I wrote on the plane ride over.”

“Fascinating.”

“Not really,” I say. The idea of him, with his freedom and power and money, seeing my ridiculous little list… of maybe even making fun of it the way I know that Dean would have. Nope.

Not having that.

“All right then,” he says.

“Thanks again for tonight.”

“Anytime. I’ll be gone early tomorrow.”

“Me too. I’m on the early shift at the gallery.”

His lips curve. “And how early is early?”

“I need to be there by eight.”

“Good time. Shouldn’t take you long to walk from here.”

“No, I’m looking forward to that.” I shift my weight to my left leg and don’t look away from him. Standing right outside my door. “How about you? Where’s Contron’s office?”

“In Mayfair.”

“Ah. That’s east of here.”

“It is, yes.”

I find myself smiling, too. “I’m learning.”

“’Course you are. Won’t be long until you’re the one driving around London, not me.”

“Well, don’t hold your breath for that.”

He nods again. “Maybe I will. I think you’re going to surprise even yourself here, Harp.”

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