Chapter 426
Chapter 426:
To her, restoration had never just been a profession. It was how she thought, how she understood the world. And a piece like this — the chance to work on something this significant came once in a generation, if at all. Simply being in the room while a master worked on it would have been enough to make her week.
She told herself firmly that it was never going to happen, and pushed the thought aside.
She guided Asher slowly along the cases, speaking about each piece as they went — its origins, its history, the particular detail that made it remarkable. Asher listened without interrupting, following every word with genuine attention. She moved from one object to the next, and as she spoke, something in her opened up. Her voice grew animated, her gestures more expressive. She began to glow.
By the time she reached the last case, she had run out of things to say and found herself simply standing there, still holding the handles of his chair, feeling unexpectedly light.
Ro𝗆𝗮ո𝘤𝗲 no𝘷𝖾𝘭ѕ 𝘰𝘯
Asher looked up at her. “This is who you really are,” he said quietly.
The words settled over her like something she had been waiting a long time to hear.
She looked at him — at the warmth in his eyes, steady and without condition — and felt everything rise at once, complicated and overwhelming.
At that exact moment, soft music began to drift through the room. A slow, unhurried melody that seemed to have no origin, filling the space gently until the whole room felt hushed and private, as though the rest of the world had agreed to leave them alone for a while.
Kristine looked away quickly, fixing her eyes on the floor.
Asher had done so much for her. She knew he cared for her — had known it for a long time now, even as she had tried not to. And she could no longer honestly pretend that she felt nothing in return.
But her past had left its marks. She turned the thought over quietly, the way she always did — wondering whether someone like her, with everything she carried, was worthy of someone as steady and generous as him.
“Kristine,” Asher said, and something in his voice had shifted — quieter, more deliberate.
She looked up. He was watching her with that small, steady warmth in his eyes that she had never quite learned how to deflect.
He extended his hand with unhurried ease. “Would you do me the honor of a dance p>
Kristine’s breath caught. She looked at his hand and felt the familiar pull to step back.
Asher saw the hesitation. He reached out gently and closed his hand around her wrist. “It’s just a dance,” he said. “Nothing more p>
A shiver moved through her. And then, before she had consciously decided anything, her hands were resting on his shoulders.
There was no looking away now.
He held her gaze with a focus that made the moment feel important — as though this dance, in this quiet room, was the only thing in the world that mattered right now.
Something in her chest gave way. She stepped forward and began to move in a slow, careful circle around his chair.