ng in the small, soundproofed space. Julian spun her around
ing with a dark, suppressed fire. He grabbed her chin, his fingers digging in
nswer, his mouth c
s were hard and unforgiving, and she could taste the whiskey and his rage. She struggled, her fists beating against the s
into a dizzying cocktail that blurred the edges of her consciousness. Her struggl
into something deeper, more desperate. The punishing pressure of his lips eased, and his mouth be
g for breath, their chests heaving. He reste
some, cruel face so close to her own, and for a mom
nd stormy. "This is the game you wanted to play, Eleanor,"
ind still clouded. In that unguarded, vulnerable moment, a name slipped from he
......"hel
air between the
ulian's face. It was replaced by a chilling, absolute sti
y burned him. He took one step back, then an
years. The one name that had been a forbidden curse in this house, a ghost
ng. They were the eyes of a stranger, filled with a black, b
ed what she had said. "No, Julian, I didn't mean..." she stammer
the most terrible sound she had ever heard. "So that's it," he said, his voi
spicion that her girlhood crush had never been for him, the quiet, difficult second son, but for the charming, brilliant Sebastian. To Julian,
ect, to pull them back from the abyss. "Let's talk about Leo," she said desperately.
mind, she was now using her supposed feelings for his dead brother to manipulate hi
on his face
topped just short, his voice a blade of ice. "You want me to help
owly, a chilling fin
a coffin. "I won't help. Let him ro
options. "I'll do anything," she whispered, the words ta
low appraisal, his eyes raking o
" he repea
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