“I’m not sure,” she explained distractedly, returning to her friend’s original message to try to focus on the rest.

The security team your friend sent worked like magic. I didn’t have to say a word! Tomas’s fiancée ended up leaving the house. Tomas spent whole time apologizing while I went through your list. Security guys had your moped and bike delivered, too. Your doorman put in your storage unit.

This message required reading twice, but she had an excellent idea of the identity of the mystery “friend” who’d sent a security team with Zoe. The only friend who had witnessed her near meltdown when Zoe failed the first time.

“Gage.” She realized her fingers were trembling when she set down the phone, her emotions all over the place. “Did you help orchestrate the retrieval of my things from my old home?”

“Absolutely.” He carried over the steaming ceramic mugs, setting them on either side of the basket of teas. “I have zero remorse for interfering, and I’d do it all over again.”

He met her gaze steadily before he chose a tea and added it to his cup.

He must have contacted Zoe without her knowing. Hired the security people and put her in touch with them, coordinating all of it while he was on the road. With the resources at his disposal, it wouldn’t have been difficult, but it had surely inconvenienced him. And it must have cost far more than she could ever afford to repay.

Gratitude filled her along with tenderness for this man who’d done so much to help her today. She’d been determined to keep her boundaries in place with him, to deny herself the hot attraction that pulled her toward him whenever he was near. But with this one act of kindness, he’d stripped away her last defense.

She was more than grateful. She was touched.

“Thank you.” She wasn’t sure she had appreciated how fully the burden of Tomas’s games had weighed her down until this moment, when she felt lighter, freer than she had in years. “Truly, I can’t thank you enough for making that happen.”

Gage slid the basket closer to her, as if to redirect the conversation toward something more concrete. “It was really no trouble, and I’m happy to help.”

The part about it being no trouble had to be a massive understatement. She wasn’t sure exactly what drove him to orchestrate the task, but she knew for certain that she wouldn’t have all her worldly possessions back under her own control if it hadn’t been for Gage.

The many feelings she’d been suppressing for him these last few days returned in full force, and then multiplied. The attraction flared hotter until it was impossible to ignore.

Impossible to deny.