Maybe she was judging me—for showing up like this, for looking every inch the violent kingpin I was expected to be.
I didn’t care.
Because I was already staring too.
At her hair, pinned in a style I knew wasn’t her favorite. At the diamond choker that didn’t belong to her collection.
At the way her pulse kicked just beneath her jaw when I didn’t say anything.
“I thought you didn’t attend public events,” she murmured, turning slightly so she was facing me.
“I don’t.”
“Yet here you are.”
“Yet here I am,” I said. “Couldn’t let you sit here alone.”
“I wasn’t alone,” she corrected, glancing at the now-empty chairs.
“No. You were surrounded.”
And for the first time since I sat down—her breathing changed.
Just slightly.
Enough to make me want to reach across the space between us and touch her. Pull her chair closer. Unhook the necklace that didn’t suit her. Strip every trace of this dynasty performance from her skin until she remembered who she was before all of this.
And I hated it—that necklace.
Hated that it sparkled where ours should have rested. Hated that someone had dared to give my wife something so visible. So claiming. So fucking public.
I leaned back in my seat, jaw tense. I hadn’t attended her birthday.
Because if I had seen the parade of heirs lining up with gifts and mergers and open contracts, I would’ve killed someone before the candles were lit.
My control had been fraying since the day she turned twenty-one and became everyone’s favorite opportunity. Everyone’s favorite meal.
Still, I kept my eyes on her neck. That delicate skin. The hollow of her throat.
I kissed her there, in the hallways of the academy. Claiming her throat when everything was still good between us. Before the world tore her away.
Now all I could think about was wrapping my hand around her throat and pulling her in close, dragging her out of this world and back into ours.
“Was that necklace a birthday gift?” I asked finally, voice lower than I meant.
She blinked once, then arched a brow. “For a minute. I thought you weren’t going to speak at all. Just stare.”
I almost smiled. “I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
Her lips curved, and for a moment… she softened.
“It was a gift,” she said, her voice catching just slightly at the end.
That was when I noticed it.
The velvet jewelry box still sitting on the table beside her half-finished wine. So it was from tonight. Not just a necklace, a claim.
I leaned forward, slow, never breaking eye contact.
