Her

Harper's heart was still racing as she stood frozen in front of him.

"You're the same girl from the library yesterday," Damian Blackwood recognized, his voice deep but his expression was unreadable.

Harper's eyes widened slightly. Wait—so he did recognize her? She rolled her eyes.

"Why do you always ruin my day anytime I set my eyes on you?" he asked, his hands slipping into his pockets.

"Me? I ruin your day? You've got to be kidding me!" she snapped back, folding her arms.

Then Damian blinked… slow… lazy… like none of this affected him at all.

"I think you owe me an apology," he spoke, gazing down at her.

Harper Reed then stared at his grey shirt, now ruined, and then back at him. She just didn't want to apologise to this annoying guy who had the worse personality ever.

Then she suddenly had an idea.

"Fine," she began, "but only when you admit that you also owe me an apology. Yesterday at the library. You obviously knew that I was reaching out for that book, but you just walked away with it. So... if you don't apologize for that, I'm also not apologizing for anything." She made her offer clear to him.

She didn't know what she was expecting him to say, but it was certainly not silence. He said nothing.

Damian's gaze finally dropped—trailing lazily from her face down to the frustrated set of her shoulders, her crossed arms, her tapping foot.

Then back up again.

Expressionless.

Unbothered.

Cool as ever.

He didn't answer.

Harper took a step closer, her tone sharper now.

"Did you hear me?!"

That was when a slight smirk grazed Damian Blackwood's lips. Damian tilted his head slightly… like he was debating whether she was worth even acknowledging.

Inside, though…

Something about her fire amused him.

That stubborn glare.

The way her cheeks flushed when she got angry.

Her amber eyes and that long dark hair of hers. He couldn't help but realize she looked familiar. He couldn't quite remember where he had seen that face though.

Damian gave her nothing.

No apology. No explanation.

Just a blink… a small half-smirk that barely lasted a second… and then—

He walked right past her.

Without a word.

Harper stood there, jaw dropping.

"Seriously?!"

She spun on her heel—maybe too sharply— that she almost fell. She gasped, her heart nearly falling out of her throat as she closed her eyes, bracing for what was coming.

Then she felt strong arms around her waist, her body barely an inch away from Damian.

And time seemed to pause. Neither of them moved. The air between them felt thick. Harper Reed felt her heart thudding in her chest, her eyes locked with his icy blue ones.

His hair was perfectly swept back as usual, his heart shaped lips were what her eyes stared at—for a brief second though, before looking back at his eyes. She seemed lost in them.

And him, he just admired her beauty. From her amber eyes with thick lashes to her full lips, with the upper lip heavier. She was pretty—there was nothing to debate about that . It was a fact.

Then—

"In the process of growing more inches, you can perhaps learn how to walk," Damian sneered, a devilish smirk on his lips.

Disgusted by his words, Harper pushed him away.

" Just go to hell, you jerk!" she barked, walking away.

Damian couldn't help but smile, watching her retreaing figure. That was when he realized where he knew that face from.

In the investigations, there were pictures of this girl, walking with Logan. Yes, she was the one that proved to be Damon's girlfriend. They were in a relationship.

Stubborn, brave, and beautiful?

For a brief moment… he wondered if this was what Logan saw in her.

Her.

The girl showing up in every report.

The one who seemed to be pulling Logan away from the family…

Away from home.

Maybe it was high time he went all in. High time he poked his nose into Logan's personal affairs. All he had to do was pull her from his life. That would speed up his mission.

One thing he did know was—it wasn't going to be easy for him, because Damon Blackwood would not joke with what is his.

And from the look of things in his prospective, she was his.

Damian smirked while going through pictures of them together from the gossip page.

"I'll take you back to where you belong, my Devil."