Aurora didn't look up when the knock came.
She was mid-sentence in a brief she'd been drafting since seven, the kind of document that required the specific, unbroken concentration of someone who had decided they were going to finish it before anything else claimed the morning. She had her assistant holding calls. She had declined two meeting requests already. The knock was, in all likelihood, the junior analyst from the third floor who had been trying to get five minutes with her since Tuesday.
"Come in," she said, without lifting her eyes from the page.
The door opened.
She looked up.
Liam stood in the doorway, one hand still on the handle, dressed for a full workday, his expression carrying the particular, easy quality of someone who had arrived somewhere they expected to be received. He took in her expression and gave a small smile.
"You seem surprised to see me."
