The city hadn’t slept, but Ariana had tried to.
After Damian’s late-night security sweep, she’d finally crawled into bed, heart still thrumming with nerves. The knowledge that someone had been in her space, touching her things, breathing the same air, lingered like a shadow at the edge of her mind.
But it wasn’t just fear keeping her awake.
It was Damian.
The memory of his hand gripping her arm when she tried to protest. The steel in his eyes when he said she was under his protection, whether she liked it or not. The controlled way he moved through her home as if it already belonged to him.
Every moment replayed in her head, and she hated that her body didn’t rebel against it. Instead, it hummed with awareness.
By morning, she hadn’t slept more than a few hours. Yet she still had to
