~ Seraphina ~
The air in the boardroom was still thick with the scent of Lucien Blackwood’s cologne—a woodsy, amber depth that felt like a brand on my skin. As the heavy doors finally swung shut behind him and his team, the silence that followed was more suffocating than the meeting itself.
"Arrogant bastard," Adrian spat, slamming his leather portfolio shut. "Did you see the way he looked at me? Like I was a bug under a microscope."
I couldn't answer. My tongue felt like lead in my mouth. I was still vibrating from the moment Lucien had looked directly at me and smiled—that slow, knowing curve of his lips that told me he hadn't forgotten a single second of the way I had come apart in his arms. He wasn’t just a ghost from a hotel room; he was the executioner of our estate, and he was ho
