Page 36 of Their Arrangement
My breath caught. He straightened. Stepped forward. Not fast. Just steady. Confident. Predators didn’t need to move fast when the prey was already cornered.
I didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Didn’t blink.
He stopped inches away. So close I could smell him. Leather. Soap. Clean linen twisted with something darker—like smoke or danger bottled.
He looked down at the files in my arms. Then up. Past my collarbone. My mouth. Back to my eyes.
“You watching me, Cloe?”
His voice was soft. Curious. Deceptively calm. My lips parted. No words came out.
“I—I wasn’t?—”
His mouth twitched. Not quite a smile. Too sharp. Too knowing.
“You weren’t watching when Ava touched my arm?”
Ava.
So one of them had a name.
He stepped closer. I had to tilt my chin up to keep eye contact. Every instinct screamed at me to look away. But I didn’t.
“I was just… passing through,” I whispered.
“Hmm.”
His eyes dropped. Skimmed over me. My chest. My waist. The hem of my skirt. He didn’t linger. He didn’t leer. He cataloged. Efficient. Unapologetic. The heat returned. Worse than before. My thighs clenched. My skin flushed.
I hated it. I hated him. But most of all, I hated myself for the part of me that wanted to stay frozen in place.
“You weren’t jealous?” he asked, voice still quiet.
I hesitated.
Then lied.
“Why would I be?”
He chuckled.
Soft.
Cruel.
Like the sound of silk tearing.
“Because you,little girl,stare at me like you want to be touched.”
The words slid under my skin and dug their nails in.
I stiffened. My knees locked. He didn’t touch me. Didn’t have to. The air between us throbbed like a warning. He let the silence stretch. Long. Long enough to drown in. Then?—
“You’re not like them.”
My heart tried to leap at the words. Almost. Almost softened. Almost let hope in. Until he added?—
“You’re not meant to be seen.”
