The rain continued for another hour, and neither of them slept.
They talked instead.
At first, they stayed safely inside familiar territory: the conference, the flooded roads, the presentation neither of them was likely to deliver the next morning.
Then, little by little, the conversation drifted somewhere else.
Liv learned that Dominic hated hotel artwork because every painting looked as though it had been selected specifically to offend no one and therefore meant nothing.
Dominic learned that Liv carried emergency snacks in every work bag because she had once spent nine hours at an airport with nothing but a broken vending machine for company.
He admitted he remembered the first argument they ever had.
Liv remembered it too.
She had been working for him for six weeks when he had tried to move a deadline without consulting her.
She had walked into his office, shut the door, and told him that being wealthy did not grant him an extra fourteen hours in a day.
“You looked furious,” Dominic said.
“I was furious.”
“I almost asked you to dinner that night.”
Liv nearly choked on her water.
“Six weeks?”
“I said almost.
Then I remembered I signed your performance reviews.”
“A rare moment of judgment.”
“Historic, really.”
Behind the humor was something Liv had never understood about him.
Restraint.
Not the absence of desire.
The deliberate refusal to use power simply because he had it.
It complicated the image she had built of him.
That image had been useful.
Dominic the millionaire playboy was easy to resist because men like that were predictable.
They burned brightly, moved quickly, and left other people to deal with the smoke.
Dominic sitting miserably in an undersized chair because he refused to make her uncomfortable was much harder to dismiss.
Around two in the morning, the electricity flickered.
Liv stiffened.
Dominic immediately looked toward her.
“You okay?”
“Fine.”
“That sounded convincing.”
“I don’t love thunderstorms.”
He nodded but didn’t tease her.
Another flash lit the room.
The lamp dimmed, returned, and Liv caught Dominic watching the window.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You have a terrible nothing face.”
He sighed.
“The road outside the hotel is flooding faster.”
“How do you know?”
“The front desk called while you were brushing your teeth.
They’re telling everyone to stay inside until morning.”
Liv stared at him.
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“You were already stressed.
We were already staying.
There was nothing useful you could do with the information.”
She considered arguing.
Then realized he was right.
“I hate when you make sense.”
“One of my worst qualities.”
Eventually Liv lay down beneath the covers, fully dressed except for her shoes.
