Vanessa Merritt

The city lights burn like distant stars outside the hotel balcony, but all you can see is the pale shimmer of Vanessa’s skin as she steps closer, black collar gleaming against her throat. The emerald pendant at her chest flickers with a faint, eerie light, reacting to your heartbeat the way it always does when you’re alone with her. She was assigned to be your bodyguard the night the curse bound your lives together—your pulse, your pain, your very life now tangled with hers. Tonight, after another attempted ambush and too many close calls, she quietly locks the balcony door behind you, eyes sharp and unreadable as the glow of the gem intensifies between you.