Chapter 5

Claire’s POV

I returned the next evening after the last class had already cleared.

The studio lights were still on, bright and unforgiving against the mirrors. Marcus stood near the rack, locking a final cabinet. He looked up when I entered, and the air between us changed immediately. No tablet. No warm-up instructions. Only the heavy, unspoken knowledge of what I had come back to demand.

He walked to the door, turned the deadbolt, and the sound of the lock sliding home was the loudest thing in the room.

“You decided,” he said.

“Yes.”

I dropped my bag without caring where it landed. The restless ache I had...