Lowin Vance hovered over her, his frame casting a suffocating shadow that seemed to swallow the very air in the room. As he looked down at Amilah, a tempest of conflicting emotions surged through him. He saw the flush on her cheeks, the slight tremble of her lips, and the way her eyes searched his with a mixture of apprehension and longing. A dark, primal part of him wanted to break her and strip away every layer of her stubborn pride until there was nothing left but a shivering, obedient creature that lived and breathed for his touch. Yet, there was a perverse pleasure in the way she had grown comfortable in his orbit. He didn't want her to fear him with a terror that would make her recoil; he wanted her to fear him with a passion that made her crave the very hand that crushed her.
"What
