This was different. This was heat and intention. A kind of attention that pressed against the skin, slow and heavy.
I didn’t look away.
If he wanted to stare, he could do it while I stared right back.
His brow lifted slightly, just a breath of movement, a question I didn’t need words to understand.
I gave him the barest nod. Not an invitation. Not a warning. Something quieter. Stronger.What do you want?
His mouth curved, just barely—not a smile. Closer to a warning. Or a promise.
Something fluttered low in my stomach. A flicker of heat wrapped in irritation, confusing in its intensity. My palms went clammy, my skin too aware of itself.
Lucy followed my gaze and let out a long groan. “Oh, boy. Careful, sweetheart.”
“Why?”
“Because Chain doesn’t play fair.”
“I don’t either,” I said without thinking.
And it was true.
He started walking toward me.
Slow. Deliberate. Like a man who knew what kind of attention he commanded, and didn’t care who was watching. Like someone who didn’t chase often, but when he did, nothing got in his way.
The room faded around the edges, voices muffled, the music dropping into a background hum. My pulse stuttered, then surged, but I held still. Unwavering. Rooted. I wasn’t folding first. Not for him. Not for anyone.
His gaze didn’t shift. Didn’t soften. It held mine like a hand to the throat. Not threatening. Just… possessive. Like he meant to claim something if I let him close enough.
Another step.
Then another.
He was close now, so close I could feel the heat radiating off his skin, could smell the clean leather and smoke clinging to him. The air between us felt tight. Charged. Alive.
My fingers curled against the bar behind me, a quiet brace. My mouth parted, breath shallow. I didn’t say a word. Neither did he.
It felt like something was about to break open.
And then she appeared.
A brunette wearing a tight dress and candy-apple red lipstick. A woman with perfect timing, her hips swinging like she knew exactly what she was interrupting. She stepped into his path without hesitation, one hand pressed to his chest like she had every right to be there.
“Chain,” she purred. “Finally, I’ve been waiting on you.”
He grinned easy as he looked down at her.
And just like that, the moment between us cracked.
Not shattered—cracked. Like glass struck at its weakest point. Thin lines spidering across the surface. Still holding, but only just.
I didn’t let it show.
The brunette’s laugh curled around us, her hand splayed across his chest as she leaned in close, too close, close enough to break the line of sight between us. And something inside me tightened — sharp, sudden, humiliatingly human — but I kept my expression smooth, the way I’d trained myself to do in rooms where the smallest flicker of emotion could cost me more than a bruise.
I refused to look away. Refused to let either of them see even a crack.
