Chapter 167
Chapter 167:
He looked out over the water. “All that success, all that power… it creates distance. Separation. Sometimes I stand in a room full of people who work for me, who respect me, who fear me… and I’ve never felt more alone.”
The admission, so raw, so unexpectedly honest, struck Camille deeply. She recognized the loneliness he described. She had felt it herself, standing at Victoria’s side at countless events, powerful and feared, yet utterly separate from everyone around her.
“Is that why you helped me?” she asked softly. “Because you recognized another outsider?”
Alexander met her gaze. “I helped you because you once helped me, though you didn’t remember it. I stayed because I saw in you something rare—someone who understood power not as an end, but as a means. Someone who could wield it without being consumed by it.”
He reached out, his fingers lightly touching a strand of hair that had blown across her face, tucking it behind her ear. The gesture, so simple yet intimate, made Camille’s breath catch.
“And because when I’m with you,” he continued, his voice lower now, “I don’t feel alone.”
The admission hung between them, changing the air, making it thick with possibility. Camille found herself leaning toward him, drawn by a force as inexorable as gravity.
“I thought I was dead inside,” she whispered. “After what Rose and Stefan did. After what I became to survive it. I thought that part of me—the part that could feel anything beyond anger or satisfaction at winning—was gone forever.”
Alexander’s hand cupped her cheek, his touch gentle as if she might break, or flee. “And now?”
“Now I’m not so sure.”
His eyes searched hers, looking for permission, for certainty. Camille closed the distance between them, pressing her lips to his, answering his unspoken question.
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The kiss was tentative at first—exploring, questioning. Then something shifted, a dam breaking inside her. Camille’s arms wound around his neck, pulling him closer as the kiss deepened, awakening sensations she had thought forever lost to her.
When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, Alexander rested his forehead against hers. “I’ve wanted to do that since the night of the children’s benefit,” he confessed. “When you stood there with impossible dignity while Rose and Stefan begged for your help, not knowing who you really were.”
Camille smiled, a genuine…
A smile that reached her eyes. “I’ve wanted you to do that since you put that ridiculous diamond necklace around my neck and scandalized Victoria.”
Alexander laughed, the sound rich and warm in the afternoon air. “Worth every penny of that hundred million.”
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