The sound of Charlton Daniel's name spread through the room like a match struck in silence.
Serena Maxwell felt the world stop — the faint hum of the chandeliers, the slow sway of silk, even her own breath seemed to hang suspended in the golden air. Around her, conversation thinned into a hush that tasted like tension and curiosity.
He had arrived.
The Grand Duke of Suffox.
The man she had once loved, once despised, and had finally sworn never to need again.
Charlton entered the hall with the composure of a man who had nothing left to prove. The light caught the sharp lines of his face — the strong jaw, the pale gleam of his grey eyes, the quiet, lethal grace that made him stand apart from every other man in the room.
At twenty-nine, he looked carved by time and purpose — impossibly handsome in a way that unsettled the senses. His presence pulled the air taut, made the chandeliers seem to burn brighter.
And still, he carried himself as though the room belonged to him.
