Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 141 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 141

Chapter 141 Not A Date

Lady Flourish’s POV

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After the drive with my father, I went straight back to F-Tech and buried myself in work, grateful for something concrete enough to keep my mind off the ridiculous contract I’d just verbally agreed to.

Rhys caught me the moment I stepped off the elevator. “My office. Now, if you have a minute.”

I followed him in, and he wasted no time getting to the point. “We have a meeting with Stonehedge Holdings at two. I already sent over the due diligence report you finished last week – they should have both the financial and operational breakdowns in hand by now.”

My pulse ticked up despite myself. “The merger talks are actually moving forward?”

“Looks that way. We’ll walk through our findings and risk points first, then move into valuation.” He glanced up from his tablet. “Damian’s expected to attend personally this afternoon.”

Of course he was.

“I’ll be there,” I said, keeping my voice level despite the sudden, foolish flutter low in my stomach.

A formal negotiation between F-Tech and Stonehedge Holdings was exactly the kind of alliance that would finally give my father’s ridiculous new expectations some real substance behind them and exactly the kind of meeting where I couldn’t afford to let anyone in that boardroom catch even a flicker of what actually existed between Damian and me outside of it.

My wolf, predictably, thought that particular challenge sounded like a game worth playing.

“Fair warning,” Rhys added. “If today goes the way I think it will, we’re looking at weekends through the next few weeks. Maybe longer.”

I let out a slow breath, already mentally rearranging the plans I’d made. Furniture shopping felt almost laughably small against the backdrop of everything else currently competing for my attention – Karl, Ashdown, my father’s absurd new contract, and now this. “Understood.”

“Got somewhere to be this weekend?” His tone stayed carefully neutral, though the faint knowing look he gave me suggested he already had a fairly accurate guess.

“It’s not a date,” I said, a little too quickly.

He didn’t push, simply waved me back out toward my desk with a knowing huff of amusement I chose to ignore entirely.

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Chapter 141 Not A Date

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Finished

Once I was settled at my desk, I pulled up my phone and typed out a message before I lost my

nerve.

*Sorry, I might have to work this weekend. I probably can’t make it furniture shopping with you.*

Damian’s reply came ten minutes later.

*Have you been swamped with work lately?*

*Not many court filings, but I picked up a merger project with Stonehedge Holdings,* I typed back, deliberately vague, testing whether he’d already heard.

The response took considerably longer this time. Long enough that I found myself checking the screen twice, some small, anxious part of me bracing for disappointment I had no real right to expect from a man who’d never once complained about my schedule before.

*Okay. Got it.*

I stared at the short, clipped reply, my wolf pricking her ears at the unfamiliar flatness of it. It wasn’t upset, exactly.

It was simply quieter than I was used to from him, and quiet, where Damian was concerned, usually meant something was working itself out beneath the surface rather than actually resolved.

I let out a slow breath and set the phone face-down on my desk, refusing to spiral over three unremarkable words from a man who had every reason in the world to already know about this meeting before I’d told him myself.

My wolf wasn’t nearly as willing to let it go, though, pacing a slow, dissatisfied circle for the better part of an hour before finally settling back down beneath the weight of an incoming client call I couldn’t ignore any longer.

Lila wandered over a few minutes later, perching on the edge of my desk with an exaggerated sigh. “You’re getting pulled onto another one of Rhys’s big cases. Must be nice.”

“You’ll get your shot eventually,” I said, waving off the envy in her voice.

“Please. With my luck, I’m just grateful he hasn’t kicked me off the team yet.” She rubbed at her temples. “This copyright infringement case has been eating me alive all week.”

I looked up properly at that, my curiosity sharpening despite the growing pile of work already waiting on my own desk.

“What infringement case?”

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Chapter 141 Not A Date

Finished

Lila groaned, dropping her head into her hands. “One of our smaller clients – an independent artist is claiming a much bigger design studio lifted an entire pattern concept straight from her portfolio. Problem is, proving originality on something this abstract is a nightmare, and the other side has three times our budget for expert witnesses.”

“Send me the file tonight,” I said, already reaching for a fresh notepad despite everything else stacked in front of me. “I might not have time to touch it properly until after the merger settles, but I want to see what we’re working with.”

Her face lit up instantly. “You’re the best. Seriously.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” I said, glancing at the clock ticking steadily toward two. “Thank me after I actually deliver something useful.”

She laughed and wandered back to her own desk, and I allowed myself exactly one more glance at my phone before locking it away in a drawer entirely. Whatever Damian’s short reply had actually meant, it would have to wait until after I’d survived an afternoon sitting across a negotiation table from him and pretending, for several excruciating hours, that I had absolutely no idea what his hands felt like.

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