"So it seems," Dorian said at last, rising unhurriedly to his feet. His gaze remained fixed upon her, but something in it had changed—there was a sharpened intensity now, a heat that had not been there before. "Only today have I come to realize… that you possess such beauty."
He took a step toward Caelith.
Slow. Deliberate.
His eyes traveled over her without restraint, lingering where they should not, bold in a way that made no effort to conceal intent. It was not admiration—it was bold possession.
A surge of revulsion rose within her, swift and suffocating.
Not again…
She knew that look. She had seen it before—felt it before. It was the look of a man who believed something belonged to him simply because it once had.
And now, once more, he meant to close the distance between them. To claim a familiarity she had already withdrawn.
Caelith stepped back.
