Ice Heart & Ember Eyes

His eyes moved over her slowly, shamelessly, studying every detail with unnerving precision. Not like the other men who looked at women with desire written openly across their faces. No—Aslan Alkan looked at her the way a predator examined something unfamiliar that had wandered into its territory. Coldly. Carefully. As if searching for hidden flaws beneath her skin, weaknesses tucked behind her quiet posture and careful smile.

There was something disturbingly arrogant in the way he watched her, something sharp and merciless that made her feel less like a person and more like an object being inspected before purchase.

And yet, strangely, it was not lust she saw in his ember-colored eyes.

It was curiosity.

Dark, dangerous curiosity.

The kind that made her stomach tighten.

Many men had looked at Sally before and made her uncomfortable, but this was different. Worse. His stare did not crawl over her body—it slipped beneath her skin, reaching places she kept locked away from the world. It made her painfully aware of herself: the stiffness in her shoulders, the careful way she stood, the sound of her own breathing.

Unease coiled tightly inside her chest.

Fear followed right behind it.

Still, she could do nothing except stand there politely beneath his gaze. No one in that mansion would dare tell Aslan Alkan to stop looking at someone if he chose not to. He belonged to that world.

She did not.

Sally kept the same composed smile on her face while Altan continued speaking to Ela, pretending to listen as she carefully avoided looking in Aslan’s direction again.

But she already knew one thing with absolute certainty.

She disliked him immediately.