I smiled awkwardly at him, yet I knew very well that he wasn’t going to get anything from me. Not tonight. Not ever, if I had any say in it. My face muscles tensed against the fake smile but I held my ground because his dark eyes kept watching me. His cold eyes that cut through me. I felt naked under her gaze. All the lies I have ever told seemed to be written on my skin.
He guided me down the dark hallway, gently placing his hand on my back.
The doors opened into a room too grand for just two people. Light glimmered as it bounced off the walls made of mahogany. A table for ten had been laid with silver and porcelain down the length of the room, as though for a banquet. Yet only two places had been set. His, at the head. And mine, beside him. Never across—never with distance.
"Sit," he
