ng in the small, soundproofed space. Julian spun her around

ing with a dark, suppressed fire. He grabbed her chin, his fingers digging in

nswer, his mouth c

s were hard and unforgiving, and she could taste the whiskey and his rage. She struggled, her fists beating against the s

into a dizzying cocktail that blurred the edges of her consciousness. Her struggl

into something deeper, more desperate. The punishing pressure of his lips eased, and his mouth be

g for breath, their chests heaving. He reste

some, cruel face so close to her own, and for a mom

nd stormy. "This is the game you wanted to play, Eleanor,"

ind still clouded. In that unguarded, vulnerable moment, a name slipped from he

......"hel

air between the

ulian's face. It was replaced by a chilling, absolute sti

y burned him. He took one step back, then an

years. The one name that had been a forbidden curse in this house, a ghost

ng. They were the eyes of a stranger, filled with a black, b

ed what she had said. "No, Julian, I didn't mean..." she stammer

the most terrible sound she had ever heard. "So that's it," he said, his voi

spicion that her girlhood crush had never been for him, the quiet, difficult second son, but for the charming, brilliant Sebastian. To Julian,

ect, to pull them back from the abyss. "Let's talk about Leo," she said desperately.

mind, she was now using her supposed feelings for his dead brother to manipulate hi

on his face

topped just short, his voice a blade of ice. "You want me to help

owly, a chilling fin

a coffin. "I won't help. Let him ro

options. "I'll do anything," she whispered, the words ta

low appraisal, his eyes raking o

" he repea