Chapter 3

The moment Lucien removed his shirt, I stared at him in disbelief.

Not because he was attractive—although he undeniably was—but because he acted like this entire situation was normal. Like locking me inside a dusty storage room and talking about ownership was somehow reasonable behavior.

My pulse hammered in my throat.

The dim lighting traced across the sharp lines of his chest and the pale scars scattered over his skin. They looked old. Ancient, even. Proof that the man standing in front of me had survived things I couldn’t even imagine.

Still, I forced myself to glare at him.

“So what?” I snapped, crossing my arms tightly. “You expect me to be impressed now?”

Lucien tilted his head slightly, amusement flickering in his golden eyes.

“No,” he replied calmly. “I expect you to stop looking at me like I’m trying to seduce you.”

He stepped closer again, slow and deliberate.

“You still don’t understand.” His voice lowered. “If I wanted obedience, I would’ve compelled you already. Humans are easy to break.”

I swallowed hard but refused to move.

“Then what do you want from me?”

For the first time since meeting him, Lucien hesitated.

Only for a second.

But I noticed.

His gaze lingered on my face before drifting toward the small cut still bleeding faintly across my palm.

“You interest me,” he admitted quietly. “That’s rare.”

I let out a dry laugh. “Congratulations. You kidnapped a sleep-deprived office worker because she interests you.”

A faint smirk tugged at his lips.

“You offered me blood in a wine glass,” he reminded me. “Do you know how insane that was?”

“I was trying to get back to work.”

“And instead, you walked into a locked room alone with a vampire.”

“Not willingly.”

Lucien chuckled softly at that, though the sound carried no real humor.

The silence that followed felt heavy.

Outside the storage room, distant office noises echoed faintly through the walls, but inside, it felt like time had frozen completely.

I looked away first.

“I still have a date tonight,” I muttered stubbornly.

The atmosphere shifted instantly.

Lucien’s expression darkened again, possessiveness flashing across his features so quickly it almost startled me.

“You keep bringing that up,” he said coldly.

“Because it’s my life.”

“No,” he corrected smoothly. “It’s the life I allowed you to keep.”

Anger flared inside my chest.

“You can’t control me.”

In a single movement, Lucien stepped forward until I was trapped between him and the metal shelves behind me again. One hand braced beside my head while his golden eyes locked onto mine with terrifying intensity.

“I can,” he whispered. “The question is whether I choose to.”

My breath caught.

Not because of attraction.

Because beneath all the arrogance and possessiveness… there was something genuinely dangerous about him. Something ancient and inhuman hiding beneath that beautiful face.

Lucien studied my expression carefully before exhaling slowly and stepping back.

To my surprise, he picked up his discarded shirt and pulled it back on.

“You’re trembling,” he observed.

“I wonder why.”

“That wasn’t sarcasm.”

The sudden seriousness in his tone made me look up.

Lucien finished buttoning his sleeves before fixing me with a calmer expression than before.

“You think I’m keeping you in a cage,” he said quietly. “But you still don’t understand what saw you in that alley.”

I frowned slightly.

“There are worse things than me.”

A chill ran down my spine.

Lucien walked toward the dusty blinds covering the small window, staring outside for a long moment before continuing.