The restaurant stood wrapped in quiet elegance beneath the pale noon light filtering through tall glass windows, the harbor stretching wide beyond it with calm waters reflecting a sky too peaceful to match the tension that had already settled inside Elara's chest before she even stepped through the door.
Everything here felt controlled.
Measured.
Curated to perfection.
And yet the moment she entered—
Her instincts sharpened immediately.
Because he was already there.
Waiting.
Alexander sat near the far end of the room beside the window, one arm resting loosely against the chair while his gaze remained fixed on the entrance as though he had never once doubted she would come, and when their eyes met across the quiet space, something unspoken passed instantly between them.
Recognition.
Tension.
Something dangerously close to inevitability.
