جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

Sienna Hart stared at the investigation wall for a full five seconds.Then she slowly turned toward Amara.Then toward Damien.Then back to Amara again.“…You know what?” she said calmly. “I actually don’t think I want the explanation anymore.”Amara almost laughed.Almost.Which honestly felt concerning considering her life was actively collapsing.“Sienna—”“No.” Sienna raised a hand dramatically. “I left work thinking maybe you secretly hooked up with a billionaire.” Her eyes shifted toward Damien suspiciously. “Instead I walk into what looks like Gotham City’s trauma headquarters.”Damien watched her silently.Completely unimpressed.Sienna narrowed her eyes immediately.“Why does he look at people like he already knows how they die?”Amara sighed tiredly.“That’s just his face.”“To be fair,” Damien said quietly, “she’s correct.”Sienna blinked rapidly.“…Why is his voice like that?”Amara frowned.“Like what?”“Like expensive emotional damage.”The silence afterward was catastro

Amara hated how safe Damien’s arms felt.It made no sense.This man had dragged her into secrets, danger, surveillance, and emotional instability within less than forty-eight hours.Yet somehow, standing in front of him while panic shook through her body, his hands on her shoulders felt like the only stable thing left in the room.That realization alone was terrifying.Damien studied her face carefully.“Breathe.”The command came low and calm.Amara forced air into her lungs shakily.“That’s it,” he murmured.Elias quietly stepped out of the office, giving them privacy without being asked.Again with the silent bodyguard teleportation.Amara pressed trembling fingers against her forehead.“My apartment…” she whispered.“You’re not going back there.”“You keep deciding things for me.”“Because right now you’re afraid.”His voice softened slightly.“And frightened people make reckless decisions.”Amara looked up sharply.“You don’t get to control me just because you’re rich.”Something

Amara couldn’t stop thinking about the look in Celeste Laurent’s eyes.Pity.Not jealousy. Not annoyance.Pity.That frightened her far more than the warnings.The penthouse felt colder after Celeste left.Or maybe Damien’s silence was what changed the atmosphere.He stood near the windows overlooking the dark city, one hand resting inside his pocket while dawn slowly began bleeding silver across the skyline.Controlled.Unreadable.Like always.Amara hated that she was beginning to notice the tiny changes in him anyway.The slight tightening of his jaw when irritated.The way his voice deepened when angry.The dangerous stillness that settled over him whenever someone mentioned his past.“You’re doing it again,” Damien said suddenly.Amara blinked.“Doing what?”“Thinking too loudly.”“That isn’t a real thing.”“It is with you.”Annoyingly, he sounded serious.Amara crossed her arms.“Your ex-fiancée basically implied I’m going to die.”“She exaggerates.”“That was not comforting.”A

Amara barely slept.Not because the guest bedroom inside Damien Blackwood’s penthouse wasn’t beautiful.It was horrifyingly beautiful.The bed alone was probably worth more than her university tuition. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the glowing city below while soft rain continued tapping gently against the glass long after midnight.No.She couldn’t sleep because every time she closed her eyes, she remembered two things:The blood in the hotel hallway.And Damien saying:“Get used to it.”As if saving people was normal for him.As if he hadn’t looked terrifying only hours earlier.Nothing about this man made sense.Amara sat up around three in the morning, unable to quiet her thoughts any longer.The penthouse remained silent.Too silent.Carefully, she slipped out of bed and walked toward the kitchen for water.The marble floors felt cold beneath her bare feet as dim golden lights glowed softly through the massive space. The entire penthouse looked like something pulled from a

“This is insane.”Amara dropped the contract onto the glass table between them like it had burned her fingers.Damien remained leaning against the bar, perfectly composed while thunder rolled faintly beyond the penthouse windows.“I’ve been called worse.”“You want me to fake a relationship with you for six months?” Her voice rose slightly. “Do you even hear how ridiculous that sounds?”“Yes.”“And you think I’ll just agree?”“I think,” Damien said calmly, “you’re desperate enough to consider it.”The words struck harder because they were true.Amara hated that.Hated him for noticing.Her chest tightened painfully as Noah’s face flashed through her mind again. Hospital beds. Medicine bottles. Late-night coughing fits she pretended not to hear through thin apartment walls.Damien studied her silently.Like he already knew exactly which thoughts were destroying her.“What happens if I say no?” she asked carefully.The billionaire’s gaze didn’t move.“Then you leave.”“That’s it?”“That