The tension in the room pressed in thickly, wrapping Caroline in a cocoon of heat and awareness she couldn't seem to escape. Lucien's shadow fell over her like a living thing, and the closer he leaned, the more suffocatingly intoxicating his presence became. She could feel the cool silk of his duvet beneath her back as it dipped under her weight, and the faint sandalwood of his cologne coiled through the air, mingling with the sharper edge of whiskey that clung stubbornly to him.
Lucien twirled a strand of her dark hair between his fingers, his movements slow, deliberate, as if savoring the texture. Caroline's chest heaved, her heart slamming against her ribs in wild betrayal. She lifted her chin defiantly, her lashes fluttering though she tried to mask her weakness.
