Lilith's POV
When we returned to the private dining room, Kieran wasn't at the table.
He stood by the window instead, a cigarette burning between his fingers, smoke curling around his silhouette like mist around a mountain peak. The glow of the ember cast sharp shadows across his face, his eyes gleaming like frost under moonlight.
At the sound of the door, he turned. Crushed the cigarette into an ashtray without a word.
His gaze slid past Jarek entirely, landing on me.
"Keep eating? Or head back??"
The question was low, rough—pure Alpha command wrapped in velvet.
I scraped my nails over my palm, eyes dropping. "Back."
"Mm." He grabbed his coat, brushing past me so close his mint scent drowned out everything else.
Not once did he look at Jarek.
Just a tilt of his chin—follow—and
