Chapter 2 - THE FEARLESS APPROACH
The silence inside the bedroom snapped tight, like a wire pulled beyond its breaking point.
Adrian did not move. He sat motionless on the edge of the bed, his broad chest rising and falling slowly under his dark tattoos, his muscles coiled like those of a panther ready to strike. The cold, intimidating aura that kept world leaders, corporate executives, and armed security personnel cowering in his presence radiated off him in suffocating waves.
He stared down at the three-year-old child who stood five feet inside his private wing.
"How did you get in here?" Adrian asked.
His voice was a low, velvet baritone, raspy from hours of silence, laced with a cold, cutting edge that could freeze blood. He didn't yell; he didn't need to. The sheer weight of his presence was usually enough to send adults shrinking back toward the exit.
Nora didn't flinch. She didn't look at his sharp features, his dark tattoos, or his cold, unblinking eyes with an ounce of fear.
She held up her tiny index finger, pointing past his broad shoulder toward the far corner of the room, where Snow was currently curling up into a fluffy white ball on top of an antique blue velvet armchair.
"He was cold," Nora explained simply, her small voice bright, clear, and ringing with absolute sincerity.
Adrian’s jaw tightened. He opened his mouth to call for security, to demand to know which guard had failed so spectacularly at their post, to order this child removed from his sight immediately.
Before he could utter a single word, Nora walked directly toward him.
She didn't hesitate. She didn't slow down. Her small patent-leather shoes squeaked softly against the floorboards as she navigated the space between two gold-leaf side tables. She stopped right between Adrian’s knees, her curly brown head barely reaching the top of his dark lounge trousers.
She looked up at his bare, tattooed chest, then into his sharp, dangerous face.
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Without asking for permission, Nora lifted her small arms, set her floppy-eared stuffed rabbit on his knee, and hoisted her tiny legs up. With the clumsy, fearless determination of a toddler, she climbed directly onto his lap as if he were nothing more than an ordinary, everyday armchair.
Adrian went completely, utterly rigid.
