Page 140 of Sage Haven

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“Klayton Ovitt.”

The room tilted. The breath left my lungs. The warmth was gone.

Ripped away.

I turned toward him slowly. Meeting his gaze.

His eyes burned.

Hot. Alive. Unforgiving.

He knew him.

And just like that—the fantasy ended.

32

REICH

“Klayton Ovitt.”

I said his name deliberately, slicing it into the room like a blade.

I knew what it would do to her.

I said it anyway.

And the reaction was instant.

Her body jerked, shoulders tightening like she’d been shot. Her breath hitched in her throat. The flicker in her eyes shifted from cautious hope to something raw, terrified,

and defensive.

Like the mere syllables of his name burned her alive.

She shrank away from me, withdrawing into herself, her hands ghosting through the space behind her like she was trying to measure the distance it would take to disappear.

She didn’t find an escape.

Her back hit the wall with a soft, desperate thud.

And still, I saw her calculating.

Still fighting.

Even now, when she didn’t know what part of this was a trap and what part was me trying to save her from herself.

I should have stayed where I was.

I should have given her space.

But I couldn’t.

I closed the distance between us, my steps measured, deliberate. Careful. Like I was approaching a wounded animal, teeth bared and cornered, ready to lash out or bleed out.

But she flinched anyway—before I even touched her. Before I even breathed too close.

And it killed me.

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