The music was soft, low, almost sinful in the way it swayed through the air wrapping around Alessia like invisible silk.
She hadn't meant to dance, God knew she hadn't even wanted to.
But pain had a way of making people reckless, and tonight, pain had found her too easily.
Her heart was a battlefield, her mind screaming Luca's name, yet her body moved with the stranger like it had forgotten loyalty.
His cologne was unfamiliar, his hands firm but not intrusive, his voice low as he whispered, "You deserve to feel alive again."
Something inside her cracked.
For a fleeting second, Alessia allowed herself to forget—forget the tears, the silence, the distance that had slowly built between her and Luca. Her world had become noise and emptiness, and here was a stranger reminding her of what it felt like to feel.
Then reality struck like lightning.
