KATHERINE’S POV
The bar was alive again tonight … the kind of chaos that felt almost comforting. Glasses clinked, laughter echoed, and the music pulsed low and steady through the dim room. I’d gotten good at blending into the noise, pretending that the world didn’t exist beyond the bar counter. Pretending that I hadn’t destroyed my own peace the moment I met him.
Arius Salvador.
He was there again.
Sitting at the far end of the bar like he owned the air everyone breathed. His fingers played lazily along the rim of his glass, his posture loose, powerful, careless… but his eyes, God, his eyes never moved from me.
I felt them every time I turned. Every time I tried not to.
I busied myself with wiping the counter, pretending I hadn’t noticed. Pretending that his stare didn’t reach somewh
