The door clicked shut, and in that instant, the silence was deafening.
It wasn’t the silence of peace; it was the silence of a storm about to break. My heart was thundering, and every nerve in my body was lit with the kind of fire I hadn’t felt in years—not even with Bruno, not even in the moments I had once mistaken for love. This… this was different.
Adrian stood just a breath away, his tall frame casting shadows against the dim glow of the room. His jacket had already slipped from his shoulders somewhere along the hall, his tie hanging loose at his collar. His eyes… God, his eyes were fixed on me like I was the only thing that had ever mattered.
“Nova…” His voice was gravel, rough, strained. He looked like he was restraining himself with everything in him, holding back an ocean with
