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

The city rose around her in soft pastels, but Elena felt no peace in the morning light. Only shame. Only the echo of his voice in her skin and the terrifying ache of longing.

She stood by her window, fingers trembling as she packed the last of her things into a worn leather bag. Clothes. Passport. Cash. No destination—just movement. Escape.

She might want him to find her again.

And if that happened, she'd lose more than just her pride. She'd lose the final fragments of herself she still recognized.

She called a cab. Gave an address she didn't plan to stay at. Changed her phone SIM on the way. No social media. No digital trail. She paid cash. Always cash. It wasn't the first time she'd done this.

Damien had touched a part of her that had been sealed shut for years. And worse—he'd woken it up.

She hated herself for how her lips had parted beneath his. How her hips had tilted into his palm. She hated the warmth that crept into her even now at the memory of his voice.

And that's why she needed distance.

But because she feared who she was becoming with him.

The bus terminal was quiet, nearly empty. She kept her head down, her bag clutched tight. Her heart beat fast with the illusion of freedom.

The weight of his gaze from somewhere unseen.

Run