The silence inside the study was suffocating, heavy with the sharp scent of aged bourbon and the faint, bitter tang of burning tobacco. Sunlight struggled to filter through the heavy velvet drapes, casting long, jagged shadows across the polished mahogany floor.
Keith stood near the tall bay windows, his body taut with a bitter, simmering rage. Every muscle in his shoulders was coiled like a spring about to snap, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. He couldn't shake the image from his mind—the way she looked, the way he looked at her. It was a poison seeping directly into his veins, fanning a fire he had been trying to extinguish for days.
