Jasmine met his gaze, unwavering. “I ran away from home. My father’s men are looking for me. He wants me to marry Victor.”

Her words were steady, but Martin caught the slightest tremor beneath them.

He leaned back, watching her. “And you thought of me?”

Jasmine’s fingers curled at her sides. “I had nowhere else to go.”

Silence stretched between them, heavy with unspoken truths.

Martin exhaled slowly, swirling the whiskey in his glass. “You shouldn’t have come ...