Chapter 9 - Two beauty
Julian looked at the clean mattress laid out on the floor, then turned to Emma, who stood nervously beside him.
"Get on," he said softly but firmly.
Emma lowered her gaze, her cheeks burning red. Hesitantly, she climbed onto the mattress and sat on her knees. Her fingers clutched each other tightly in her lap, her knees trembling slightly.
Julian looked at Emma more closely now, taking in the details that confirmed what he had only vaguely remembered from the few glimpses he’d had of her around.
Her short crimson hair framed her face in sharp, slightly uneven strands, giving her a fierce, tomboyish charm. Even in her exhausted, bitten state, she had a striking presence. Her skin was fair and flawless, her features symmetrical eyes like deep amber glass, now dulled with pain and fear.
Of course. Emma Leigh.
He had heard her name whispered through the halls more than once. She wasn’t just Clarissa’s best friend, Emma had worked as a model part-time, and it showed. Her figure was toned and effortlessly elegant, the kind that turned heads whether she wanted it to or not.
Julian recalled the rumors how guys constantly confessed their feelings to her, only to be politely but firmly rejected. She never seemed to take any of them seriously. Always calm, always out of reach.
But the one person she did spend time with, practically inseparable was Clarissa.
They were a well-known duo. Beauty and fire. Grace and edge. And now... both had been brought into his world.
And in that moment, as he knelt before Emma, seeing not the confident figure from the rumors but a broken girl trembling at the edge of death, something twisted in his chest. Power, pity, and something darker, satisfaction. Now you need me.