The world narrowed to that look.
"You think he can save you?" Damian's voice was soft, almost tender. He closed the distance between them in measured, predatory steps. She backed against the shelves until there was nowhere left to run. His hand pressed to the wood beside her head, his body caging hers in. "No one will. No one but me."
Her breath trembled. "You terrify me."
His lips brushed her ear, then her jaw. "Good. Fear means you understand how much you belong to me."
Her knees buckled, but before she could break, before she could answer, Luca's hoarse voice cut through the thick silence.
"Run, Isabella. While you still can."
The words were reckless, a spark thrown into gasoline.
The sound of footsteps echoed in the hall. Voices.
Damian drew back, his expression unreadable, his composure snapping back into place like armor. He adjusted his cufflinks, his gaze still locked on hers.
"This isn't over," he promised, the words a dark vow.
He left the library without another glance.
Silence fell. Heavy. Suffocating.
Luca staggered to Isabella, his grip shaking as he took her hand. "He'll never stop. We have to end this before he owns every piece of you."
Her chest tightened, torn between terror and something far more dangerous. Because Damian had left her trembling not with disgust… but with desire.
And that was the most terrifying chain of all.
The library was too quiet, the kind of silence that suffocated. Rows of books towered above them, shadows stretching long across the polished floor.
Damian stood there, still as stone, his gray eyes sharp as blades.
Luca stepped in front of Isabella, shoulders squared. "You don't own her, Damian. Not her voice, not her body, not her life."
The words hung heavy.
Damian's jaw flexed once, and then he moved.
His fist connected with Luca's face in a blur of violence. The crack echoed, books tumbled, and Luca staggered into a shelf. Isabella gasped, reaching out but before she could get to him, Damian's arm coiled around her waist, pulling her against his chest.
Her body betrayed her, heat searing where his palm pressed firmly against her stomach.
"Stay still," Damian murmured, voice dark silk against her ear. "You'll want to see this."
"Let him go!" she begged, struggling against his iron grip.
Damian ignored her. He shoved her aside, stepping toward Luca with terrifying calm. Each stride was deliberate, predatory.
Luca wiped blood from his lip, glaring. "You'll never have her. No matter how many men you kill. No matter how much you cage her."
Damian smiled then slowly, cruelly, and dangerously. "Who said I needed her love?"
He slammed Luca against the desk, wood splintering under the force. His hand closed around Luca's throat, squeezing just enough to make Luca's face redden, his breath come short.
"Damian!" Isabella's cry cut the air, her hands clawing at his arm. "Please, stop! You'll kill him!"
His eyes shifted to hers. For a heartbeat, something raw flickered there desire, hunger, obsession. He leaned closer to Luca, his voice low but meant for her.
"Say it, Isabella," he ordered, his grip tightening. "Say you're mine. Say it, and I'll let him live."
Her breath hitched, her chest rising and falling as panic and heat tangled inside her. Luca's gaze locked on hers, pleading silently.
Her lips trembled. "I… I…"
Damian leaned in, so close she felt his breath ghost across her lips. "Choose, bella. Him… or me."
The words wrapped around her like chains.
And then..
The doors crashed open.
Antonio Ricci strode in, two armed men flanking him. His eyes blazed with fury as he took in the scene Damian with his hand on Luca's throat, Isabella pale and trembling between them.
"What the hell is this?" Antonio's voice was thunder, cutting the air clean.
Antonio's voice thundered through the library, rattling the silence.
"Damian. Release him. Now."
For a split second, Damian didn't move. His grip on Luca's throat remained, unyielding, his body a coiled spring of violence. His gray eyes flicked toward Antonio, sharp, calculating.
"Careful, Antonio," Damian murmured, his tone deceptively calm. "Step between me and what's mine, and you'll regret it."
Luca gasped, clawing at Damian's arm, his strength fading. Isabella's nails dug into Damian's sleeve, desperate. "Please! He'll die!"
Antonio's men raised their guns, tension crackling like static. "I said let him go!" Antonio barked again.
Damian's jaw clenched. Slowly deliberately he loosened his hold. Luca collapsed onto the floor, coughing, blood at his mouth, his chest heaving for air. Damian stepped back, but his stare never left Isabella. Cold. Possessive. Daring her to see anyone else but him.
"Get him out of here," Antonio ordered his guards, pointing at Luca.
"No!" Isabella cried, darting toward Luca, but Damian's hand shot out, catching her wrist with brutal precision. The small gesture spoke volumes of control wrapped in flesh. Her pulse fluttered wildly under his fingers.
"You'll stay," Damian said softly, voice carrying more weight than any shouted command. His thumb traced the inside of her wrist before he let her go. "He leaves. You don't."
Luca tried to rise, his eyes finding Isabella's. "Bella…" His voice broke, but Antonio's men hauled him up, dragging him out of the library despite his protests. The sound of the door slamming behind them echoed like the toll of a bell.
Silence fell again. Isabella's breath came shallow, her eyes burning as she turned to Antonio. "You should have let him stay! He was protecting me!"
Antonio's gaze hardened. "Protecting you? Or putting you in more danger than he realizes?" He stepped closer, lowering his voice. "Damian isn't a man you defy, Isabella. He's a storm. And storms don't forgive those who try to escape them."
Damian's lips curved into the faintest smirk. "Finally, someone with sense."
Her head whipped toward him, fury sparking through the fear. "You think this makes sense? Breaking, choking, caging.." Her words caught as Damian moved, too fast, too deliberate. One second he was across the room; the next, his body pressed hers into the bookshelf, towering over her.
"Caging?" His whisper brushed her lips, his eyes burning with dangerous amusement. "No, Bella. This.." he dragged his knuckles slowly down her cheek, the gentleness a sharp contrast to his earlier violence "this is teaching. You'll learn to bend before you break."
Her chest rose, shuddering. "You call this love?"
"Love?" Damian chuckled darkly, his mouth grazing her jaw. "No. This is an obsession. And obsession is stronger."
Antonio's throat cleared sharply. His presence was a reminder and warning both. "Enough, Damian. She's not yours to destroy."