Length8h 32m
About this audiobook
Seventeen years. That is how long Julian has wanted to kiss somebody, and he has never once said so out loud, to anybody, including himself in writing.
The lock on the bottom drawer of his desk had been his father's idea. He tests it now, brass key cool against his thumb. Three-quarters of a turn and the mechanism clicks home with a sound like a door sealing shut.
There is nothing incriminating in that drawer. That is the part that would be hardest to explain.
Leo is the junior nobody expected to last. His sketch was dismissed in a meeting by a man who did not look at it properly, and he took the note, and rebuilt it overnight, and said nothing — and that is the moment, although neither of them identifies it as one for another eleven chapters.
There is a door Julian keeps locked and a site where they both, in different senses, fall. There is the weight of a foundation that has been signed off by somebody who should not have signed it, a late night worked because neither will leave first, and a risk Julian did not plan for and takes anyway.
There is a lantern festival, and a star drawn on a lantern by somebody who does not usually draw.
*He keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop. He keeps waiting for me to leave or betray him or turn out to be exactly what his worst fears say I am.*
*Then he's—*
*I'm going to keep telling you until you're sick of it.*
*I don't think I'll get sick of it.*
*Good.*
Julian kisses him. Soft. Reverent. The way he has wanted to kiss somebody for seventeen years and never permitted himself to.
Let the board convene. Let the firm have its opinion, in writing, through the proper channels.
Julian will put the whole practice on the table before he lets one of them make Leo smaller.
Audiobook details
GenreRomance, Biography and Memoir
Length8 hrs 32 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 15, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Dedication
2Prologue
3Chapter 1 - The Sketch He Dismissed
4Chapter 2 - The Door I Keep Locked
5Chapter 3 - The Site Where We Fall
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6Chapter 4 - The Weight of Foundations
7Chapter 5 - The Late Night We Work
8Chapter 6 - The Risk I Didn’t Plan
9Chapter 7 - The Lantern Festival Night
10Chapter 8 - The Star on the Lantern
11Chapter 9 - The Presentation Ambush
12Chapter 10 - The Grace I Don’t Deserve
13Chapter 11 - The Secret We Keep
14Chapter 12 - The Library of Us
15Chapter 13 - The First Crack
16Chapter 14 - The Commitment We Choose
17Chapter 15 - The Rival’s Move
18Chapter 16 - The Lies That Bind
19Chapter 17 - The Father’s Shadow
20Chapter 18 - The Whisper Campaign
21Chapter 19 - The Return
22Chapter 20 - The Lie Wins
23Chapter 21 - The Fallout
24Chapter 22 - The Mentor’s Truth
25Chapter 23 - The Grand Gesture
26Chapter 24 - The Presentation of Our Lives
27Chapter 25 - The House Around the Tree
28Epilogue
29The End
30About the Author
31Also by Quinn Mercer
32Acknowledgements
33A Note from the Author
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