Liyana Xu was used to men fearing her.
She had built Xu Enterprises from the ground up, crushing anyone who dared stand in her way. The business world was a battlefield, and she was its reigning queen.
But Damien Lu?
Damien wasn't just an opponent.
He was the only man who had ever walked away from her.
And now, he had the audacity to come back, standing in her office, looking at her like he still had a claim to something that wasn't his.
Her.
Liyana exhaled, slow and controlled. "You should've stayed gone, Damien."
A dark chuckle. "And let you get bored?"
His arrogance made her fists clench. "Don't flatter yourself. Your absence didn't matter."
"Then why do you look like you're about to kill me?"
He stepped closer, deliberate, measured. There was a dangerous edge in his movements—like a predator toying with its prey.
The city lights cast long shadows across his features, making him look even more untouchable. But Liyana wasn't a woman who got swept away.
She held her ground.
"You're in my way," she said, voice like steel.
Damien smirked. "Am I? Or did I just remind you that I'm the only one who can challenge you?"
She hated how true that was.
She hated how easily he got under her skin.
"Why did you come back?" she demanded, cutting through the tension.
His smirk faded. A flash of something darker passed through his gaze. "You already know the answer."
She did.
But she wanted to hear him say it.
When he didn't, she took a step forward, defiant, daring him. "You lost the right to be in my life the day you walked away, Damien. Whatever this is—" she gestured between them, the charged air, the history still lingering—"it's over."
His jaw ticked. For a second, he almost looked... furious.
Then he laughed, shaking his head.
"You think I came back to let you go?" His voice was softer now, dangerous in a different way.
Liyana's breath caught.
Because there was something possessive in the way he said it.
Before she could react, Damien reached out—fingers grazing her jaw, tilting her chin up ever so slightly.
Not forceful. Not rough.
But absolute.
Her pulse thundered. "Let. Me. Go."
But even to her own ears, her voice wasn't as sharp as she wanted it to be.
Damien's thumb traced the curve of her jaw, slow, deliberate.
"Not yet."
Her breath hitched.
His grip wasn't tight. She could step away. She should step away.
But she didn't.
She hated him.
She wanted him.
And when he leaned in, his lips just a breath away from hers, she almost let him close the distance.
Almost.
Then—Liyana pushed him back, hard.
The space between them was suffocating.
"Stay out of my way, Damien," she whispered. A warning. A challenge. A plea.
His smirk returned, but his eyes?
His eyes said this wasn't over.
"Make me," he murmured, before turning and walking out.
Leaving her breathless.
Leaving her furious.
Leaving her knowing that this was just the beginning.