His tone made it abundantly clear-Ste was the sole exception to hispleteck of humanity; to everyone else, he remained the exact same remorseless


    monster.


    Old Mr. Wyatt''s lips twitched in mild disgust. "Did Mr. Burton give you a timeline on when those toxins will finally be flushed out of your system?"


    "He said it''ll take another month," Leonard replied, checking his watch.


    Old Mr. Wyatt nodded and waved him off like a stray dog.


    ...


    When Ste returned to the penthouse, she found the massive suite entirely empty. Joshua was nowhere to be found.


    Retreating to the music room, she utched the velvet-lined case and lifted Nameless, the custom violin, from its cradle.


    She adjusted her grip, testing the tension of the bow, and began to y a slow, sweeping sonata.


    To an untrained ear, her performance was still breathtakingly professional.


    But to Ste, the agonizing gap between her current sound and her former peak was ringly obvious.


    When she had first returned to the music scene after years of absence, she had relied on grueling daily practices to revive her dormant talent.


    Now, with her hand still recovering from severe trauma, hitting those virtuosic heights overnight was physically impossible.


    Yet, the panic wing at her throat made her desperate. She didn''t have months to rebuild her stamina.


    As she forced her way through aplicated measure, she frantically brainstormed her therapy approach. Maybe she should switch to the Nocturne Ste.


    It was the exact violin she had yed in the ind''s moonlit garden—the very instrument Joshua had painstakingly restored with his own hands.


    Dropping her bow as the final note faded, she turned to head to the disy case, only to freeze.


    A tall, imposing figure was leaning casually against the doorframe.


    "Joshua? When did you get back?" she asked, startled.


    "Just a few minutes ago," he replied, his dark eyes dropping to the polished wood of Nameless. "You were distracted just now."


    Ste let out a soft sigh, carefully setting the violin down on a velvet stand.


    "I was. My mind was entirely somewhere else."


    Joshua slowly pushed off the doorframe, a dangerously charming smile curving his lips as he closed the distance between them. "And, what exactly had you so distracted sweetheart?"


    Ste tilted her head, gazing up at his wless, aristocratic features.


    He was offering her that devastatingly warm smile, his dark eyes shining with an


    easy, affectionate gentleness that made him look like a carefree heartthrob.


    Staring at him now, it was violently jarring to reconcile this breathtaking man with the bloodied captive chained in a lightless concrete cell.


    An overwhelming surge of protective devotion brought a lump to her throat.


    "Star," he murmured, his voice dropping an octave. "Don''t look at me like that."


    She blinked, snapping out of her daze. "Like what?"


    His gaze darkened instantly, shifting from affectionate to predatory. He closed the remaining gap is lips


    hovering a


    limeter from her ear


    as he let out a low, gravelly whisper.


    "You give me a look like that, and I''m going to lose every ounce of control I have."


    A rush of heat flooded Ste''s cheeks.


    But this time, instead of pulling away, she reached up, looping her arms around his


    neck. Rising onto her tiptoes, she pressed her lips firmly against his.


    In all their time together, Ste had never been the one to initiate a kiss.


    It wasn''t that shecked the desire; Joshua was just such an overpowering,


    possessive force that he never gave her the opportunity to make the first move.


    Her sudden, bold aggression clearly caught himpletely off guard.


    But it only took him a split second to recover. Alow groan rumbled in his chest as his hands locked onto her waist dragging her flush against his body as he returned the kiss with a fierce, consuming hunger.


    When he finally pulled back to let her breathe, his chest was heaving, his dark eyes burning with raw, untamed lust.


    He nced down, realizing her nimble fingers were already undoing the buttons of his tailored dress shirt.


    A wicked, raspy chuckle escaped his lips. "It''s barely the afternoon, Star. Are you absolutely sure about this?"


    Despite the teasing question, he didn''t make a single move to stop her. Instead, he simply watched her, his gaze heavy with an intoxicating mix of devotion and searing desire.