Olivia POV:
The sparkling sheer black dress made me stand out in the candle-lit room, but I knew that was exactly what he wanted. The fabric clung to me like darkness spun into silk, every step catching the warm glow of the chandeliers overhead. Music drifted through the hall—soft, elegant, eerily calm—but my pulse thrummed far too loudly beneath my ribs. I watched him from the corner of the magnificent hall.
Dimitri.
Commanding. Effortlessly regal. A predator dressed in tailored midnight. He moved through the crowd with a kind of lethal grace that made people part for him without even realizing they did. His eyes—those cold, starless things—kept flicking toward me, like a silent tether wrapped around my throat. He wanted me seen. Displayed. Marked as his. Every instinct in me bristled
