Nobela ni Esther Edem

I didn’t sleep.Every creak of the building, every car passing outside my window, every shadow that moved wrong had me reaching for my phone to call… who? The police? And tell them what—that someone had made vague threats about car accidents?By morning, exhaustion and fury had crystallized into something sharp and unbreakable. Someone thought they could scare me off with anonymous phone calls and veiled references to my mother’s death. They were about to learn exactly how wrong they were.I dressed for battle—my sharpest suit, heels that could double as weapons, hair pulled back in a bun tight enough to give me a headache. If Kane Drax thought he could keep playing games while someone threatened me, he was about to get a reality check.The courthouse felt different today. More eyes tracking my movement, more whispered conversations that stopped when I passed. Paranoia, maybe, but after last night’s call, I wasn’t taking any chances.Kane was already waiting when I entered the intervi

I couldn’t concentrate.Three hours I’d been sitting at my kitchen table, case files spread across the surface like tarot cards predicting disaster, and all I could think about was the way Kane had said my name. Like it hurt him. Like it was something precious he wasn’t allowed to have.Be careful.The memory of his desperate plea sent heat spiraling through my core for the hundredth time today. I shifted in my chair, pressing my thighs together against the persistent ache that hadn’t left me since walking out of that courthouse.This was insane. I was a professional woman, not some lovesick teenager obsessing over her first crush. Kane Drax was my client—a criminal accused of sexual assault—and I was supposed to be preparing his defense, not fantasizing about his hands on my body.But God, the way he’d looked at me. Like I was salvation and damnation wrapped in a conservative suit.I forced myself to focus on Victoria’s statement, reading through her accusations with growing skeptici

The scalding water did nothing to wash the feeling from my skin.I stood under the spray for thirty minutes, scrubbing at flesh that still tingled with electricity, trying to drown the memory of his voice saying my name like a prayer. But every time I closed my eyes, I saw him pressed against that wall like I was something dangerous.Maybe I was. Maybe that was the problem.My body was a traitor. Even now, with soap suds sliding down my curves and steam fogging the mirror, I could feel the phantom weight of his gaze on my mouth. The way his pupils had blown wide when I’d whispered “yes” to feeling whatever this impossible connection was between us.I’d never reacted to a man like this. Sure, I’d had relationships—safe lawyers who understood my ambition, men who fit neatly into my ordered world without causing ripples. But none of them had ever made me feel like I was coming apart just by existing in the same room.Kane Drax was everything I should run from. Criminal. Violent. Dangerou

I woke up to my alarm screaming and sunlight burning through curtains I’d forgotten to close.Shit. 8:47 AM.I was supposed to be in the office by eight-thirty, showered and professional and pretending I hadn’t spent half the night touching myself to fantasies of a criminal’s hands on my body.The shower was scalding and too brief, my hair a disaster I attacked with bobby pins and prayer. Coffee burned my tongue as I threw on the first suit I could find—navy blue, conservative, armor against the memory of hazel eyes that had seen straight through my soul.I’d dreamed about him. About Kane. Dark, vivid dreams where those scarred hands explored every inch of my skin while he whispered filthy promises in that whiskey-rough voice. I’d woken aching and empty, my fingers still slick with evidence of what I’d done while thinking about him.Pathetic didn’t begin to cover it.Patricia’s office door was already closed when I rushed past, but her assistant flagged me down with a manila folder th

The bass pounded through my chest like a second heartbeat, and I wanted to murder my sister.“You’re twenty-seven, not seventy,” Sofia hissed, her manicured nails digging into my wrist as she dragged me past Eclipse’s velvet rope. “When’s the last time you did something that wasn’t work related?”Never. And I liked it that way.Eclipse was everything I despised about Ravenwood’s elite—excess wrapped in designer labels and called sophistication. The air was thick with expensive perfume, desperation, and something darker that made my skin prickle with unease. Politicians’ wives snorted cocaine off Hermès clutches while tech moguls bought bottles worth more than my rent, and everyone pretended this was normal.“I should be reviewing the Morrison files,” I muttered, but Sofia’s grip was iron.“The files will still be there tomorrow. Tonight, you’re going to remember what it feels like to be human.”If only she knew how human I felt right now—pulse racing, palms sweating, every nerve endin