"So, you're making me a gift."
His voice was slow, deliberate. A lazy kind of menace coiled through his words as he drifted closer, his fingertips grazing the edge of Rigo's table. Ren stood frozen, her pulse hammering in her throat. He never showed anything, never let a damn thing slip. But now? Now his face was different. Twisted. Dark. Something wicked flickered behind his eyes, something vicious and unfamiliar.
What the hell had happened while she was gone? This wasn't him. This wasn't the man she knew. Had she ever really known him at all?
"What if I am?" she shot back, turning her attention to the glass vials before her. She gathered the ingredients she needed, hands moving with steady precision. The cologne would take hours to complete, and she was determined to finish before midnight, before retreating to the solitude of her room.
