The air was heavy that night,thick with rain and the electricity of unspoken things.

Carson’s penthouse windows blurred with the storm outside. The city lights bled through the water in fractured golds and silvers. Inside, silence pressed down, broken only by the rhythmic thrum of thunder and the faint sound of Juliet’s breathing.

She sat curled on the couch, a blanket draped around her shoulders. Her eyes soft, storm-grey followed Carson as he moved through the room, his every motion a ...