Lahat ng Kabanata ng Craving Forbidden Pleasures : Kabanata 351 - Kabanata 360

The ballroom of the Lemaire Foundation glittered like a cathedral built for vanity.Light fractured through crystal chandeliers, painting gold across polished marble and the bare shoulders of the city’s elite. Waiters drifted like ghosts with trays of champagne.Evelyn Vale had never felt more like a performance.The envelope Lucas had given her lay sealed in her clutch, though she had already read it a dozen times. It was a talisman—and a curse. Every name, every transaction burned behind her eyes. The truth was now hers, and she could no longer pretend not to know.But tonight she would smile. Tonight, she would be the Vale heiress—composed, charitable, unblemished.She caught her reflection in one of the towering mirrors: sleek black gown, diamonds like drops of light at her throat. Beautiful, untouchable. A portrait of control.And yet beneath the surface, her pulse betrayed her. Because she could feel him.Lucas.He was here.She didn’t know how she knew it—only that every nerve

He heard her stir. “You shouldn’t be here when the sun’s up.”She drew the sheet closer around herself. “Neither should you.”He turned then, and the look in his eyes was something she hadn’t seen before. Not guilt. Not tenderness. Something older—like recognition of the inevitable.“I’ve been watched since the moment I stepped into that ballroom,” he said quietly. “They’ll find the breach by dawn.”“And me?”“They’ll suspect. Eventually.”A pause. “Do you regret it?”He almost smiled. “Regret is a luxury I can’t afford.”She rose, the sheet falling in soft folds around her. The light made her seem almost carved from gold and shadow, too beautiful for the room she stood in. “And what am I now, Lucas? Another mark? Another stolen thing?”He crossed the space between them slowly. “You were never something to steal.”“Then what was last night?”“Proof.”She frowned. “Of what?”“That you’re not made of glass.”The words were a whisper, but they broke something fragile inside her.He touch

He didn’t answer. Instead, he swung his legs out of bed and stood, every line of his body tense. The fire had died in the hearth, and the ashes glowed faintly red — like the remnants of a night they couldn’t keep.Evelyn rose slowly, pulling one of his shirts over her shoulders. It hung loose, smelling faintly of smoke and rain. “You think it was one of yours.”Lucas gave a sharp nod. “A man named Cassel. Used to handle transport. He must have followed me here after the auction job went bad.”“And he knows about me,” she said.Lucas’s silence was answer enough.Outside, the wind shifted — carrying the distant growl of engines. Her pulse quickened. The world was waking again, and it was not kind.He moved quickly now, methodical. He checked the weapons he’d hidden in a false drawer, loaded them without expression, then met her gaze. “There’s a back exit through the kitchen. Down to the lake. You’ll take the boat.”“I’m not leaving you.”“Evelyn—”“No.” She stepped closer, her voice tre

The city outside the hotel window had no stars, only the fevered pulse of rain and distant sirens.It suited Evelyn; light, she had learned, was a luxury for people with nothing to hide. And she had alot to hide and to hide from. Little did she. Know that what she had to hide from - what she had to deal with was much more than she could have envisaged in her wildest dreams. She stood there for a long time after Lucas had finished speaking, watching headlights smear through the glass, trying to breathe through the weight of what she’d just learned.Her father’s empire—her life—hadn’t been built on fortune or brilliance. It had been built on control. A lattice of false names, shell companies, and stolen technology buried under layers of elegance and charity. And she—his daughter, his heir—was the contingency. The perfect, polished mask to protect the secret if the rest ever cracked.“Say something,” Lucas murmured behind her.“What would you like me to say?” she replied without turning.

The streets of Vienna were quiet when Evelyn and Lucas emerged from the smoke, the aftermath of the masquerade burning behind them. The Palais D’Etoile had become a smoldering silhouette against the night sky, chandeliers shattered, glass strewn across the marble steps like frozen stars. The city smelled of charred wood and wet stone, and the distant hum of sirens reminded them that danger had only shifted, not disappeared.Evelyn’s gown, once a cascade of black silk, was streaked with ash and rain, clinging to her in damp, dark folds. She moved with purpose, every step measured despite the exhaustion clawing at her. Lucas kept close, his hand brushing hers now and then — not a casual touch, but a tether, a reminder that they were still navigating the same storm together.The chaos of the gala still echoed in their minds: Charlotte’s laughter, the crash of mirrors, the scent of fear and perfume mingling in the grand hall. And yet, outside, the world was eerily still. They could hear t