A Ruthless kind of love

ames. Waiters glided across the room like phantoms with trays full of champagne. No matter where Elena looked, people wer

faker am

o heavy, redolent with perfume and cash. Elena had come to observe, to take in impres

ts kept turnin

e statement that still burned her ears. The one who had somehow found

ught about tossing it. Each time she extended a hand to stroke it, somet

bstract canvases, she experienced the sensation again. The

ing her mind. That paran

e turned

here

n this time, shirt collar undone, but his power hung from him like armor. People navigated around

looking

g. His gaze was so piercing, so fixed

ing chaos of reds and blacks-but could not see it. Her universe cont

r breathing. Ignore him. Do

perhaps seconds. She

o

ead, arching her neck, scanning the

th

dn't be he

ped around her

the smooth floor. She turned to find him inches away

nflinching, unyielding. He filled

ped to retrieve her pen, requiring the

tened, he was st

his eyes anything but. They scanned the room like a predator calculating

ned. "And you're

usement, not rage, but something in b

d arrogance she'd detected at the gala. His confidence wasn't sta

here alone," he sa

up. "I don't n

is words dropped to a low, intimate tone. "Yo

already a done thing, like she couldn't possibly do anything to ch

nagging the word like a tr

lips curling into that half-

the ringing of glasses-everything disappea

aining rigid, measured space. He did not touch her. He d

. "The rose. In my ap

icker of enjoyment in t

artment," she accused

, as if reporting a matter-of-fa

nearly, at the absurd

hing, his eyes turned colder, with somethi

tole her breath.

her feet stayed stuck, as though he

ne," she whispered, hatin

his lips brushing dangerously close to her ear

if I

air crackled, her skin b

unspoken on the other. She thought of the rose, of the way his eyes

ely audible. "The

weighing her words. The silence stretched, unbearable,

est of the things

between them, resol

ess, as if all their encounter had been nothing more than politely exchanged remarks. H

scape, she reminded herself, escape before he came back, b

eless eyes, her heart burned with

her already knew she

walkin