CHAPTER 002
907 Words
CHAPTER 002
ADRIAN’S POV
The ballroom sparkled, but to me, it was a pit of snakes. Light cascaded from the chandeliers, making gems gleam, gowns shine, and smiles seem sharp. They thought their toasts and laughter masked their motives, but I heard the hiss behind the politeness—bets on my downfall, whispers that the Blackwood name was unraveling.
I loathed these parties. Always had. Yet tonight had nothing to do with my hate. Tonight, I had to survive. Each step, every handshake, every word had to be flawless, disciplined, unreachable.
And then she materialized.
Amelia Carter.
She cut through the room like a flame, out of place but composed, sending a jolt through me. Earlier, she’d been in that corridor, overhearing what she shouldn’t have.
Her eyes found mine on the opposite side of the room. No flinch. Not a flicker left her eyes. That hushed blaze that flared with every second our eyes met.
The very definition of a dangerous mistake.
I slipped from a circle of men negotiating investment deals that amounted to nothing more than money-laundering schemes and strode across the floor. Everywhere I stepped, people hailed me with hollow greetings, lavished me with feigned admiration, and pressed me about my father’s health. I shoved them aside with courteous, icy nods. My pulse accelerated. Every step beat a war drum.
She cast her gaze away, pretending unseen, but the knot in her shoulders was plainly visible. She knew.
I found her in the ballroom’s farthest corner, slipping beneath a marble column. I seized her wrist and drew her just far enough into the shadows.
What did you hear?” I lowered my voice to a near growl.
Her chin rose at once. “Enough.”
Enough. That one word slashed through me.
I squeezed her arm harder still, then let her go, my fingertips throbbing with the heat of her skin. You have no idea what you’ve waded into.
“Then tell me.”
Her voice lacked any tremor. She wasn’t nervous. It was cutting, bold. No one ever dared.
A shadow of a smile pulled at my mouth—a smile that bore no resemblance to amusement. Do you really think you want answers? Answers will kill you.”
She stayed where she was, made no attempt to pull back. Instead, she stepped nearer, and her perfume’s delicate scent wove with the lingering taste of the costly wine on my tongue.
“You’re afraid,” she breathed.
Those words felt like a knife, and for a breathless instant, I let them seep into me. She was right. Fear is all I draw in now. Yet I couldn’t let her see that. I wouldn’t let her see it.
So I turned it into cruelty.
“All you are is a distraction.”
Her mouth opened, and for the merest instant, a flash of pain crossed her features. And her eyes grew hard.
Perhaps you should give up the chase.
I knew the sting. More deeply than I was willing to confess.
The space between us thickened. Before I knew it, I was close enough that another inch would press my lips to hers. I didn’t. I couldn’t. But the thought scraped at me.
“You have no idea what I’ve done,” I growled, my voice grittier. “What I’ve experienced.”
“Show me,” she whispered, her breath falling upon my skin as a soft caress.
In one heartbeat, I fractured. A vice clamped my chest and words crowded my throat. I could tell her everything. The betrayals, the blood, the rot in my family. The empire was smoldering from within.
Instead of confessing, I choked the words into silent silence.
Should she hear the truth, she’d run. And if she did not, she would be lost.
So I pushed her back with the only force I could muster.
“I told you,” I growled, harder this time, the words nearly flying from my mouth. Keep yourself out of my world. You have no chance of enduring it.”
Her jaw clenched, but she stayed where she was. She didn’t yield. Rather, her hand streaked out, flattening itself against my chest.
That touch paralyzed me.
Perhaps I don’t need to be rescued.
That one sentence shredded me. No one had ever spoken to me like that. No one had ever confronted me, never regarded me as a man instead of a weapon or a shield. Her palm seared my chest, resting directly over the frenetic throb of my heart, and I despised the powerful urge to press my own hand over hers, to hold it there.
Yet she drew away before I had the chance.
And she was gone.
She vanished into the golden glow, into the tide of gowns and masks. I leaned against the marble, breathing too fast and shallow, hands shaking as they rarely did.
Another round of laughter exploded in the ballroom, yet I failed to hear it. I heard nothing but her voice, reverberating.
Perhaps I don’t need to be saved.
His enemies were watching. My family was plotting. My empire was coming apart.
Yet all that raced through my mind was Amelia Carter.
And that terrified me more than any of the rest.
For she had only just entered a war.
God, help me. I wasn’t certain I cared to pull her back.
What if she was the one who could lay me low?
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