The air in L’Eclat had turned into a vacuum. I could feel the eyes of the city’s elite burning into our backs, their whispers rising like a swarm of insects. But I didn't care about them. My entire universe had narrowed down to the man standing between me and Maya, and the way his hand was casually, possessively, inches from her skin.
"What do you want, Nicholas?" Maya’s voice was barely a whisper, but it carried a jagged edge of terror that made my blood boil.
"I told you, Maya," Nicholas said, his voice dropping into a low, intimate murmur that ignored my existence entirely. "I want you. I didn’t come here to play games."
I stood up then, my chair screeching against the marble floor—a jagged, ugly sound that drew the attention of the surrounding tables. I stepped into his personal
