The onesie's tail twitched with each backward step Luna took. Caleb's smirk deepened as silk slid between his fingers - pink flannel against his gunmetal gaze.
"Grandmother's taste in sleepwear surprises even me," he drawled, giving the absurd appendage another tug.
Luna's retreat collided with opened wardrobe doors. Neon lace and chiffon scraps cascaded around them like fallen petals. Her choked gasp fogged the mirror. "She wouldn't-!"
"Wouldn't?" Caleb plucked a black negligee from the avalanche, its spiderweb straps dangling like a dare. "The woman who smuggled aphrodisiacs into my soup?"
Three floors below, the clatter of medicinal pestles punctuated Eleanor's cackling drift through air vents. Luna's blush rivaled the onesie's hue.
The kitten yawned pointedly from its velvet throne.
"You approve this farce?" Luna hissed, clutching the tail defensively.
Caleb's knuckle brushed a fallen strap. "Yuan Yuan finds it... entertaining." His gaze darkened as the analog clock ticked toward midnight. "As do I."
The knock shattered their stalemate.
"Sir." The maid's shadow quivered beneath the doorframe. "Madam's special nourishment."
Luna's escape attempt died at Caleb's grip on her hood. "Play your part, Mrs. Thorn," he breathed against her ear, flannel suddenly stifling.
The soup's aroma promised vengeance - ginseng and goji berries swimming in suspiciously viscous broth. Caleb drained the porcelain cup in three practiced gulps, Adam's apple bobbing like a hanged man's final twitch.
Ice water cascaded in the ensuite, steam rising vengefully. Luna pretended engrossment in Gray's Anatomy diagrams, though the ink blurred as Caleb emerged shirtless - droplets tracing the scar bisecting his ribs.
"Physician." His shadow engulfed her trembling page. "Diagnose me."
The medical text thudded dully. Luna's palm found furnace-hot skin. "Fever. Rapid pulse. Pupil dilation-"
"Poisoned," he concluded grimly, wrenching open the door to reveal Eleanor's ear pressed to the keyhole.
The standoff crackled with generational warfare.
"Ginseng root! Deer antler velvet!" The dowager's cane thumped ancestral guilt into marble. "This old bones merely wishes to hear little feet-"
"Madam Grayson prepares your chamomile," Caleb interrupted through gritted teeth. The steward's whimper echoed down the hall.
Alone again, moonlight painted their stalemate in silver. Caleb's restraint snapped - lips finding the pulse beneath Luna's ear as he tumbled them onto crumpled lace. "Enough pretense."
The performance began.
Luna's gasp artfully pitched. Caleb's growl reverberated through headboard taps. Beyond the door, satisfied cackles faded with retreating slippers.
"Clear," he muttered into her hair.
She pushed against damp pectorals. "Then rise."
His laughter held broken glass. "Would that I could, little actress." The evidence pressed unmistakably against her thigh. "Grandmother's brew proves... potent."
Dawn found Luna staring at water-stained ceiling panels, Caleb's breath hitching in forced sleep. Somewhere between medicinal herbs and performed passion, truths had slipped their leashes.
When morning's first sparrow sang, the couch lay empty - only a dent in the pillow and the lingering scent of ice-cold showers remained.
On the vanity, Yuan Yuan batted a torn negligee strap beneath the medicine cabinet's cracked door. Inside, emptied vials of antidote glittered like broken promises.
Moonlight through frosted glass painted Caleb's silhouette in mercury tones. Luna's fingers curled around damp bedsheets still warm from his feverish sleep. The ensuite door stood ajar - silent sentinel to his absence.
"Mr. Thorn?" Her whisper dissolved in conditioned air.
Ice water plinked from shower tiles. Luna's bare feet met marble colder than winter headstones.
The bathroom mirror exploded.
Shards rained like diamond dust as Caleb's fist withdrew from the fractured glass. Blood snaked down his forearm, each droplet hissing against heated tiles. Luna's reflection fragmented in the carnage - a dozen wide-eyed ghosts watching him unravel.
"Looking to play nurse?" His graveled voice ricocheted off acoustics. "Or executioner?"
Her medical training warred with primal fear. Needle glinted between trembling fingers. "Your fever-"
"Devours me whole." He crowded her against fogged glass, water from his unbuttoned shirt seeping into her sleepwear. "Yet you stoke the flames."
Luna's retort died against his palm. The kiss tasted of copper and compromised boundaries. Somewhere beyond the drumming in her ears, the mansion's antique grandfather clock tolled three a.m. - funeral march for dying pretense.
His teeth found her collarbone. "Tell me to stop."
The command/goad hung between them. Luna's nails bit into his biceps, drawing twin crescents. "If you need..." Her voice broke like the mirror. "...find another."
Caleb stilled.
For three heartbeats, the world held its breath.
His laughter shattered the suspension - jagged sound scraping raw nerves. The wall shuddered as he slammed his bleeding fist beside her head. "Another?" Blood spatter bloomed across her cheek like war paint. "You think this," he gestured between them, "is replaceable?"
Dawn found Luna scrubbing crimson streaks from bathroom grout. Mr. Grayson's discreet cough announced breakfast trays and veiled concern. "The Young Master's jet departed for Dubai at 4:07 a.m., madam."
The lie hung prettier than truth.
Black Diamond's strobe lights carved X-rated shadows across VIP booths. Xiaodie's diamond cluster caught laser beams, scattering prisms over snorted cocaine residue. "See this rock?" She thrust her hand across the table, nearly upending Kong Zhen's mojito. "Su Xi's downpayment on forever."
Luna traced the champagne flute's rim. "Congratulations require proportional gifts." Her phone buzzed with promised coordinates.
Kong Zhen's giggle turned nasal as she sniffed Xiaodie's abandoned cocktail. "You'll bring Caleb Thorn as arm candy, right? Even fake princes shine brighter than real paupers."
The bathroom's disco tiles throbbed with bass beats. Xiaodie's sneer warped in funhouse mirrors. "Spit it out, charity case. What's your pathetic-
Luna's smile could frost hell. "Merely returning lost property." She dropped a hotel keycard between Xiaodie's collagen-plumped lips. "Room 1708. Your fiancé's awaiting... feedback."
The lounge door hissed.
Su Xi's shadow stretched like an oil spill across neon floors. His Gucci loafers crushed spilled caviar as he advanced. Kong Zhen's drunken hiccup echoed through sudden silence.
"Darling!" Xiaodie's warble faltered at his arctic gaze. "I was just-"
"Stealing my mistress' jewelry?" Su Xi's Rolex glinted as he backhanded Xiaodie. The diamond skittered into dark corners. "You'll pay for that display, little moth."
Luna melted into strobe-lit chaos, Xiaodie's screams harmonizing with fire alarms. On the dance floor, bodies writhed oblivious - a sea of grinding limbs swallowing consequences whole.
Somewhere above the Atlantic, Caleb's private jet banked through storm clouds. His bandaged hand clenched around a shattered mirror shard - Luna's fragmented reflection winking in polarized light.