Chapter 52 Destroy Me

• The night had swallowed the villa whole, leaving only the restless hum of the sea outside the tall windows. Waves crashed against the rocky cliffs below like a warning that the world beyond these walls was as merciless as the world within them. Ivy sat at the edge of the bed, her hands buried in the silk sheets, her chest rising and falling in uneven rhythm as though she were bracing herself for a storm. And perhaps she was—because Damien was that storm, circling her like a predator deciding whether to devour or spare its prey.
• He stood by the window with his jacket undone, a cigarette burning low between his fingers, though he hadn’t drawn from it in minutes. Smoke curled upward, lazy and poisonous, but his eyes were anything but lethargic. They were alive with fury, sharp with suspicion, and fixed entirely on her. The silence stretched, thick enough to crush her lungs, and Ivy could almost hear the grinding of his thoughts.
• “You should know better than to play games with me,” Damien finally said, his voice low, a dangerous rasp that seemed to scrape against her skin. “Every move you make, every word you choose, tells me something. And tonight, you told me too much.”