CHAPTER 2: “THE QUESTION THAT WASN’T PROFESSIONAL”
The room didn’t move.
Not even the air seemed willing to shift after Daniel Kang asked that question.
“Is that what you needed last night?”
Mia Carter blinked once.
Then twice.
Her brain tried to process it in professional terms, like a negotiation tactic or psychological probing.
But the memory came back too clearly.
The subway. The exhaustion. The warmth of a stranger’s shoulder.
And the fact that she had felt—just for a few stops—that she was safe in a city that never made anyone safe.
“I…” Mia cleared her throat. “That’s not relevant to the project.”
A faint silence followed.
One of the executives shifted uncomfortably.
But Daniel didn’t look away.
That was the problem.
Most powerful men looked away when things became personal.
Daniel Kang didn’t.
He studied her like she was a problem he had already solved—but hadn’t decided whether to keep the answer.
Finally, he leaned back.
“Everything relevant becomes part of the project,” he said calmly.
Mia forced a smile.
“Then my answer is no. I didn’t need anything last night. I just fell asleep.”
A pause.
A lie.
They both knew it.
But Daniel didn’t press.
Instead, he turned back to the architectural renderings.
“Approved for second review,” he said.
The room exhaled.
Meeting dismissed.
But as Mia gathered her tablet, she felt it—
eyes on her.
Not just professional attention.
Something heavier.
Like she had stepped into a current she hadn’t noticed in the water.
She didn’t see him again for three days.
Three days of design revisions. Client emails. Budget adjustments.
Three days of telling herself the subway moment meant nothing.
Then, on the fourth night, her office building lost power.
The entire floor went black.
Mia sighed, rubbing her temples.
“Of course,” she muttered. “Of course it’s today.”
Her assistant had already left.
Rain hammered the windows of her Midtown studio.
And then—
the elevator dinged.
Emergency lighting flickered.
Footsteps echoed down the hallway.
Mia froze.
Not because she was afraid.
But because she somehow already knew who it was.
The door opened.
Daniel Kang stood there.
No security visible.
No entourage.
Just him.
Black coat. Calm posture. Eyes that didn’t belong in a storm like this.
“You’re working late,” he said.
Mia frowned. “It’s not exactly a surprise in this industry.”
His gaze moved past her—blueprints scattered across the table, half-finished models, coffee cups stacked like evidence of exhaustion.
“You always work like this?” he asked.
“Yes.”
A beat.
“That’s inefficient.”
Mia almost laughed.
“You’re not my boss, Mr. Kang.”
“No,” he agreed. “I’m your client.”
The way he said client made it sound like a lie neither of them believed.
Lightning flashed outside.
For a second, the office lights flickered weakly, then died again.
Mia reached for her phone.
“No signal. Great.”
Daniel stepped inside.
“Come with me.”
She froze. “Excuse me?”
“There’s power at the secondary site. You can finish revisions there.”
“At… midnight?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds like kidnapping with extra steps.”
A pause.
Then—strangely—his mouth twitched.
Almost a smile.
“I don’t kidnap people who fall asleep on me,” he said.
Mia stared at him.
“You remembered that?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
Instead, he stepped aside.
Waiting.
Not forcing.
That was the first unsettling thing.
Men like him didn’t wait.
They took.
But Daniel Kang simply stood there in the rain-lit darkness, as if her choice actually mattered.
And against every logical instinct she had—
Mia grabbed her laptop.
“Fine,” she said. “But if this is a trap, I’m redesigning your hotel lobby into a prison aesthetic.”
May you like
That time, he did smile.
“Noted.”
