Lashirah_Hash

> He saw her once—and that was enough.

Elena Rivers was just a waitress at a high-end gala she didn’t belong to, filling in for someone else's shift. She didn’t know her spilled glass of champagne would be the moment Damien Vale—billionaire, recluse, and dangerously obsessive—noticed her.

He never spoke to her. Not then. But he watched.

And when he wanted her closer, he made it happen.

Now, Elena is working directly under him, unaware that the life she thinks she controls is already entangled in the hands of a man who doesn't just want her—he needs her.

He’s patient. He’s powerful. And he’s been planning this from the moment she walked into his view.

OBSESSION IN SILENCE

No matter how hot the water ran, or how hard she scrubbed, Elena could still feel him on her skin—his hands, his breath, his mouth like a brand burned into the softest parts of her.

She pressed her forehead against the tile, breathing hard. She hadn't cried. She hadn't screamed.

But something inside her was shaking apart.

Even now, wrapped in a towel, wet hair dripping onto the floor, the memory made her thighs clench involuntarily. Her body was a traitor. Her mind was a battlefield.

But hate wasn't enough anymore. Hate didn't explain why she'd stood there, letting him kiss her like she belonged to him. Letting him touch her like she wasn't breaking.

She remembered his voice against her skin.

And that was the most terrifying part.

This wasn't just about lust. It was about history. Control. Power. She remembered being seventeen, thinking he was the only person who saw her. The only one who knew how loud her silence really was.

Now he'd slipped under her skin again like he'd never left.

She stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped in a robe, and sat on the edge of the bed. The city lights spilled through the window, pale and cold. The world kept moving.

Her phone buzzed on the nightstand. A message. No name.

The same one etched into the obsidian on the collar.

Ashes