"Love Is Being Seen" read as a standalone is out now. Here's a little snippet. ❤️
✨Arabella's POV
"You know," I say, nudging his foot with mine beneath the table, "for a man who barely speaks, you're surprisingly good at saying the right things."
His brow arches-slow, controlled, amused.
"Oh? And what did I say right this time?"
I grin.
"That I'm allowed to be more."
He leans forward, forearms resting on the table. It's subtle. But with Soren, everything is subtle.
"You are more," he says simply.
Heat rises under my skin-warm, immediate.
"Careful," I tease. "If you say it like that, I might think you're flirting with me."
He doesn't look away.
Not even a little.
"What if I am?" he asks.
My breath catches-just enough to betray me.
Then I smile, letting the moment playfully tip into something charged.
"Then I'd say you're doing a very good job."
His jaw flexes.
✨ Soren's POV
She has no idea what she does to me.
Arabella Valencourt sits across from me in a dimly lit restaurant, smiling in that soft, grateful way that could ruin any man who isn't careful. And I am careful. I always am.
Except with her.
She thinks I got rid of that photographer because I was being kind.
I did it because I'd burn down the whole studio before I let anyone look at her the way he did.
She has no idea I've been watching her for years. Not stalking, not obsessing-just... noticing. The way she lights up when she talks about something she loves. The way her smile wobbles only when she thinks no one sees it. The way she always carries her own heaviness quietly, like she doesn't want to bother anyone with the weight.
Aliana was right.
I do have a crush.
More than a crush. But Bella doesn't see herself clearly enough to imagine someone could feel that way about her. That's the part that shocks me every time.
She thinks I wouldn't like her.
She thinks I'd look past her.
Not a chance.
