Jacqueline drew in a silent breath, her lungs barely moving as her gaze swept the room in urgent calculation. She searched for anything anything at all that could serve as a weapon.
Her pulse thundered in her ears.
She had already decided what he was: a burglar. An intruder. Danger.
Her body reacted before her mind could catch up, slipping instinctively into that razor-thin space between fight and flight.
Screaming for Damien tempted her. The urge burned at the back of her throat.
But one look at the man's towering frame told her the truth he would crush her before her scream ever finished leaving her mouth.
"My, my… what a sight in this ugly place."
The deep, husky voice slid across the room, and her eyes snapped upward, colliding with a pair of jade-green ones. Cold. Sharp. Predatory.
He was facing her fully now, leaning back against the kitchen slab with lazy confidence, as though he owned the air she was breathing.
For a fraction of a second, she was caught off guard.
