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Chapter 28: Burlesque

Author: Black sweet
last update Last Updated: 2025-09-30 20:05:47

~ Avelyn ~

The maid led me out into the garden, dew still clinging to the roses, their petals heavy in the faint evening light. It should’ve been beautiful like manicured hedges carved into perfection, the scent of lavender drifting like a lullaby but all I could think of was how this place wasn’t paradise. It was a cage dressed in silk.

And in the center of it, he sat.

Xander was lounging at a wrought-iron table, sleeves rolled carelessly to his forearms, collar open, a glass of wine in one hand and files spread before him. He didn’t look like a man burdened by empire. He looked like a man born to command one. His presence burned through the fresh air, made it heavy, made me want to shrink into the shadows.

But I didn’t. I stood there, stiff, bracing myself.

His gaze lifted lazily from the page to me. Slowly and deliberately, his eyes traced down my messy bun, sweat-soaked training clothes clinging to my skin, down to my sneakers dusted with dirt. His lip curved the way it always did
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