Chapter 36 A Taste Of Reckoning

• Ariana wasn’t sure how she ended up pressed against the elevator wall, her breath caught somewhere between disbelief and hunger. Damien's hand gripped the metal rail beside her head, his body only inches away, his scent flooding her senses. The quiet hum of the elevator was deafening compared to the silence between them. It wasn’t just the proximity, it was the weight of unspoken truths, of nights they hadn’t dared revisit, of pain neither had yet named.
• “You didn’t have to come,” she whispered, voice hoarse.
• “I know,” Damien murmured, “but I did.”