Chapter 164

• He looked at her, his piercing blue eyes narrowing slightly with a mix of curiosity and gentle command, the candle flames dancing in their depths as he held her gaze without flinching. "Whatever you want to say," he said, his voice low and reassuring, laced with that steady warmth that always seemed to anchor her, "after dinner. Eat—you need energy for tonight." He smiled back then, a slow, teasing curve of his lips that crinkled the corners of his eyes.
• She smiled in return, but it didn't reach her eyes—not genuine, but a fragile mask that wavered under the weight of her thoughts. The secret is eating her alive, gnawing from within like a shadow she can't outrun, the rebirth truth coiling tighter with every beat of her heart. He will become the same Howard soon—the cold, hateful storm she once knew, once lost to. For him, though—for the man who had burned their contract and built this moment—she pushed the dread down, picked up her fork with fingers that trembled just once, and started eating. The risotto's creamy warmth met her tongue, but it tasted of ash beneath her forced composure, the cold wind whispering across the balcony as if urging her confession closer.
• After dinner ended, plates cleared and wine glasses emptied to their last ruby drops, she rose from the table, drawn irresistibly to the edge of the huge balcony where the city sprawled below like a glittering tapestry of dreams. City lights twinkled endlessly—skyscrapers piercing the velvet night, rivers of traffic weaving golden threads, a symphony of life pulsing far beneath their perch high above the world. The cold breeze swept in from the heights, playful and insistent, tousling her loose hair into wild waves that danced around her face, chilling her skin through the thin fabric of his oversized shirt she still wore, its hem fluttering against her thighs.