CHAPTER 04. CLOSE ENOUGH TO BURN
638 Words
I did not plan on being alone with him.
But plans mean nothing in rooms built for power.
The meeting dragged longer than expected. Deals stacked on deals. Men talked over one another, pretending to listen while calculating who would bleed first.
I stayed quiet, hand folded, eyes lowered. Just enough to look seamless.
That was how I survived now. Invisible when it mattered. Observant always.
My fiance was pulled away by a call he could not ignore. His apology was brief, his hands brushing my shoulders as he left.
A reminder.
A warning.
A shield.
Then the room began to thin.
Chairs scraped back. Laughter followed people out of the door. Assistants gathered files. Voice faded into hallways.
Until it was just the two of us.
Across the table.
He did not speak right away.
Neither did I.
The silence felt deliberate. Heavy.
Like a test I had not been told I was taking.
Up close,he was worse.
Not because he had changed, but because he had not.
The same sharp jaw.
The same calm, assessing eyes.
The same presence that bent room around him without effort.
I wondered briefly,if he remembered how he used to look at me.
Or if that version of him was buried so deep that he also believed the lie he told everyone else.
"You're unusually quiet,"he said at last.
His voice still had that characteristics,low, even, controlled. The kind that made people lean in without realizing why.
I lifted my gaze slowly.
Carefully. Every movement measured.
"I prefer listening," I said.
His mouth curved slightly. Not a smile. A reaction.
"Dangerous habit".
"So I've been told."
He leaned back, fingers tapping once against the table. His eyes stayed on my face. Openly curious now.
"You do not behave like someone new to this world".
"I am not".
The answer came too easily. Way too easily.
Something flickered across his expression.
Interest, suspicion, recognition that almost landed and missed.
"You remind me of someone," he said after a pause.
There it was.
The first c***k.
My heart did not race. I had trained it not to. Panic was a luxury I could not afford anymore.
"Do I?"..
"Yes". His brow furrowed slightly.
"But I can not place it.
Good.
That meant the mask was holding.
He stood and began circling the table.
I felt him before he reached me.
He had always known how to take up space.
The shift in the air, the pull of attention.
He stopped too close.
Close enough that I caught his familiar scent.
Clean. Sharp. Dangerous.
Memories tried to rise.
I crushed them.
"You are very composed,"he said.
"Most people aren't that composed around me".
"I have learned control ".
"From whom?"
"From necessity".
His gaze dropped briefly to my mouth. Then back to my eyes.
The pause stretched.
"You are engaged?"
"Yes".
No hesitation.
"Why would there be?"
Another flicker. This one darker.
He stepped closer.
I did not step back
That surprised him. I saw the subtle tightening of his jaw, the recalculation.
"Careful ",I said softly. "People might talk".
His lips curled into a slow, dangerous smile.
"Let them ".
For a moment, the world narrowed down to the space between us. The unspoken things. The past pressing against the present, desperate to be seen.
"You do not seem afraid of me".
"I am not".
That was the truth.
Fear had burned out of me years ago.
I met his gaze and held it. Refused to look away. Refused to shrink.
This was the first battle.
And I did not lose.
When my fiance returned, the spell broke.
He stepped between us easily, his arm around my waist like it belonged there.
Possession.
Protection.
Performance.
His eyes lingered on us a second too long.
I smiled politely.
Inside, I was already counting moves.
- Writer
