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 way her hand strayed to her stomach. How she moved slower, rested more. How her eyes—though brighter—carried the weight of something unspoken.

Damien studied her body like scripture. He'd memorized the way her hips moved, the curve of her waist. He noticed when her rhythm shifted, when the way she sat changed—subtle adjustments only a man who had consumed her would detect.

He should've been furious. Or maybe terrified.

But what he felt was something else entirely.

The world could lie to her. Christopher could paint her a new dream. But her own body had betrayed her—etched Damien into her bloodstream in the most permanent way possible.

He wondered when she would find out. If she would cry. If she would try to deny it, or worse—erase it.

But no matter what she chose, he knew now.

And that knowledge made her feel closer than ever.

She was living in a borrowed dream.

The Body Never Lies