"You don't have to now," he said, his thumb brushing away the last trace of a tear from her cheek with unnerving tenderness. The leather of his glove felt impossibly soft against her flushed skin. The gesture carried an intimacy that unsettled her, possessive yet gentle in a way that contradicted everything she thought she knew about him.
Something flickered in his eyes… an emotion she couldn't quite name, though it made her chest tighten. "But I'm going to earn it. However long it takes, Nina." He paused, letting the weight of his words settle between them. "I'm not going anywhere."
Nina scoffed, a bitter, wet sound that died quickly in the heavy silence of the empty bar. Her gaze had grown completely hazy, her eyelids drooping as the amber weight of the scotch pulled her deeper into uncoordinated defiance.
