Little Fire... how dare you let him?
Every flicker of that flame.Her defiant spark, her blade-edged grin, the chaos in her laugh—it all belonged to him.
Always had.
Not to this silver-spooned imposter with perfect posture and inherited power.
Not to this entitled prince with a crown he didn’t earn.
Arden was his.
But she stood there, giving Gideon pieces of herself that were never his to take.
He had watchedher for so long, studied her until she was carved into the inside of his skull.
He knew her better than she knew herself.
The tilt of her chin when challenged.
The wildfire in her eyes when cornered.
The way her laughter sliced through silence like a flare in the dark.
She was violence and velvet.
Steel in silk.
A woman made to bring men to their knees.
And Gideon couldn’t see it.
Couldn’t see her.
Not the way he ever had.
She didn’t belongin Gideon’s world of sterile glass towers and backroom betrayals.
She belonged in the shadows.
In truth.
In the blood and bone of real things.
She didn’t belongto that world.
She belonged with him.
She hadn’t realizedit yet.
But he could wait.
He had waited.
Patient as breath.
He was meticulous. Careful. Like fate spinning its web, strand by strand.
And now?
