She gritted her teeth.
He was lying.
“I don’t care what you’re here for,” Nina said, forcing herself to meet his eyes even as her voice trembled.“Get out of my house.”
He didn’t move.His gaze traced her expression again. Then he slid his hands into his pockets, almost casually.
“You’re alone?” he asked.
The question disoriented her.
“What?”
“Are you here alone? Anyone else in the house?”
Her thoughts scrambled. If she said yes—he’d have leverage. If she said no—he’d know she was lying. She stayed silent.
He glanced around the living room, his expression shifting into something analytical.
“So you’re alone,” he concluded.
And for some reason… there was relief in his voice.
Several agonizingly long seconds passed. They simply stared at each other. Electricity shot through every inch of her skin from his gaze—the same eyes she still saw in nightmares. The cut on his cheek was almost healed, his hair neatly styled. He looked immaculate. Beautiful on the outside and rotten to the core.
Once, she had wanted his attention. And this was where that had led.
“Let’s calm down,” he said finally. His voice was steady, but something in it had changed. There was a strange note—regret? Or was she imagining it?
“I didn’t mean to scare you, Nina.”
Her name sounded wrong in his mouth. Foreign. She let out a short, brittle laugh.
“Sure. You just show up at my house in the middle of the night—nothing scary about that. Or you think time erased my memories?”
Jasper frowned, but didn’t answer.Instead, he nodded toward the couch.
“Sit.”
He acted like the house was his. Like she was the guest. Like she was the one meant to obey.
She didn’t know why she wasn’t running. Why she hadn’t slammed her hand on the security panel. Why she stood frozen.
His stare was steady. Expectant. The stare of a man used to being obeyed.
Nina’s knees weakened. Fear still wrapped every nerve like barbed wire. She should’ve resisted. Should’ve screamed. Should’ve done anything except—
She walked to the couch and sat down.
Like a wind-up doll.
Jasper followed, his steps soundless. He took the armchair across from her.
Silence stretched—tight and suffocating. Nina clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palms just to feel something solid. Her pulse thundered in her ears.
“I told Lynn that her mother died during childbirth,” he said evenly.
Everything inside her froze.
