Chapter 29: A First Class Invitation

After Dana left, Stella went back to unpacking her bag. When she heard the familiar buzz of her phone, she thought it must be Mandy. Her best friend, texting her from Paris.

She couldn’t have been more wrong.

It was Bennett Orloff. The man who’d blown her mind by shape-shifting before her eyes, and again by his skills in the bedroom. The man she’d left in the dust because living with the kind of stress and disaster he brought wherever he went was just too much to ask of any mortal soul. Stella knew she couldn’t live her life that way. It was too much.

“Meet me for dinner.” Read the text.

Stella glanced at the gold scripted envelope addressed to her that Dana had delivered. It was obviously from him. It was obviously a romantic gesture, to invite her to dinner.

The text was back up. She guessed he was just following through. Checking in with her.

He was trying.