Page 81 of Savage Crown

I step closer.

Brush it against her wrist.

Light. Barely there.

But enough for her to feel.

To imagine.

Her lips press into a tight line.

Her breath—too controlled.

I smile.

And then she speaks.

"Wow," she muses, tilting her head, eyes scanning the whip in my hands. "Didn’t take you for a whips and chains kind of guy."

I pause.

The smirk I’d been toying with vanishes.

Seraphina grins.

And gods help me, she even winks.

A slow, deliberate thing that sets my blood boiling.

My grip tightens around the leather handle.

"Amusing," I say, voice smooth, even. "Does humor help when you’re afraid?"

She shrugs. "I don’t know. Does a whip help when you’re compensating?"

A breath of silence.

My jaw tenses.

She is baiting me.

Trying to turn fear into something flippant. Trying to make me the fool.

It almost works.

But then—I see it.

The way she keeps her hands still at her sides.

The way her weight shifts subtly to one foot, as if preparing to move.

And the tremor.

Barely there.

But real.

Fear.

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