For a second, his expression flickered, a flash of something unreadable before the smirk returned, sharper now, more dangerous. He looked at me like I’d just handed him a weapon and dared him to use it.
“Pretending?” he murmured, his voice dropping to a sinful hush. “That’s cute.” His thumb brushed a phantom circle againstmy wrist, deliberate, claiming. “But you and I both know you wouldn’t last long in my game.”
I held his stare, every instinct screaming at me to look away, to run, to breathe, but I didn’t. “Then try me.”
The air shifted. The smile that followed was slow, knowing, a promise wrapped in a threat. “Oh, I will.” He stepped back, releasing me just as the next song began, the applause for our parents swelling around us like a wave. “Midnight,” he said. “At the pool.”
I blinked. “Why?”
“Because,” he said, eyes glinting beneath the golden lights, “you wanted to prove you can play like a Maddox.” His smile deepened, dangerous and deliberate. “Let’s see if you survive the first round.”
He turned away before I could say anything, disappearing into the crowd, leaving behind the ghost of his touch and the echo of his challenge.
I stood there, the world spinning on, laughter and music threading around me as if nothing had happened. But my heart knew better.
The war had started.
CHAPTER TEN
LUNA
Standingonthedancefloor,alone, the night met me like an embrace I didn’t deserve.
The air was thick, humid, alive with the salt of the sea and the sweetness of nature. Beneath it lingered the faint sting of chlorine from the pools, sharp enough to bite my lungs when I drew in a shaky breath. The sounds of the reception softenedaround me, dulled to a heartbeat I could almost mistake for my own.
My feet moved of their own accord, carrying me away from the crowd, away from the chaos, in the opposite direction of Riley’s retreat, into the hush of shadowed corners where it felt like no one could reach me.
The world out here was dark and alive and honest. Just moonlight spilling over the terrace railing, painting the ocean in broken silver.
I leaned against the cool marble and closed my eyes.
Then try me.
My words echoed still.
I’d thrown those words at him, trembling inside. I’d meant them as defiance, but the truth was uglier. They had come from fear, from the raw edge of desperation.
He had seen it. I knew he had.
It wasn’t bravery that had driven me. It was instinct. A feral need to protect what little control I had left, even if it meant challenging him on a field I could never win. I could still see the flicker in his eyes when I said it. The promise. The threat.
And soon the moment would come to honor it.
If I didn’t show up by that pool, he’d know. He’d know that all my sharp words and polished smiles were nothing but papier-mâché armor. He’d know that beneath the elegant dress and family name, I was soft, uncertain, scared.
I stared out toward the shadows below, where the water shimmered like temptation and danger both.
If I went to him, I might lose.
If I didn’t, I already had.
A gust of wind lifted the hem of my dress, brushing it against my legs like a warning. The night itself seemed to whisper his name, pulling at me, daring me to step further into the dark.
Riley Maddox had turned this wedding into a battlefield. And I, fool that I was, had agreed to fight him on it.
The thought sent a shiver through me. Not of fear. Not exactly. Something deeper, sharper. The kind of thing that burned in the bloodstream before it destroyed you.
I pushed off the railing, the distant laughter behind me nothing more than a ghost. My pulse had become a drumbeat, slow, relentless, inescapable.
