Elara's POV
The words Isabella had flung at me clung like burrs I couldn't shake.Men like Lucian don't notice girls like you.
She was right. She had to be. Lucian belonged to a world of silk gowns, golden spoons, and glass towers. And I… I had come into his life on trembling feet, carrying pastries like a fool.
I stayed in the servants' quarters that evening, folding linens just to keep my hands busy. But my chest was tight, my mind replaying every glance, every word.
When the door creaked open, I thought it was another maid. Instead, it was him.
Lucian.
I froze, the fabric slipping from my hands. "S-sir?"
"Lucian," he corrected, his voice quiet. "When we're alone, call me Lucian."
The way he said it — low, steady, commanding — made my knees weaken. I lowered my eyes, my heart thundering. "You shouldn't be here. If she—if Isabella finds out—"
His footsteps drew closer until he stood only a breath away. "I don't care what Isabella thinks."
I dared to lift my gaze. His face was shadowed, but his eyes… his eyes burned with something dangerous. Something I couldn't name.
"She was cruel to you today," he said, his tone dark. "I saw it."
"It doesn't matter," I whispered, my throat tight. "She's right. I don't belong here."
Lucian's hand moved before I could step back. He took my chin gently, tilting my face up to his. The touch was careful, restrained, yet it set fire to every inch of me.
"You belong where I say you belong," he murmured. "And right now, you belong here."
My breath caught. The distance between us dissolved, the air heavy with the unspoken. His thumb brushed my skin, and my lips parted before I could stop them.
For a heartbeat, I thought he would kiss me.
But then he drew back, his hand curling into a fist at his side. His jaw clenched, his mask snapping back into place.
"If you ever doubt yourself again," he said, softer now, "remember this — I see you, Elara."
And then he was gone, leaving me trembling in the quiet, his words echoing louder than the storm that still lingered in the skies.
Lucian's POV
I shut the door behind me, every nerve in my body screaming.
I had almost crossed a line again. Almost.
But damn it — the way she looked at me, fragile yet unbroken, made me want to shatter every chain that bound me to Isabella, to this life I no longer wanted.
And that was dangerous.
Because if I wasn't careful, Elara wouldn't just be the maid in my house.
She would become the ruin of me.