57. ICY TOUCH

ISLA'S POV. I could feel his gaze on me. My chest tightened again, and I fought the urge to look up, to meet his eyes. But I couldn’t stop myself from wondering: was he thinking about that night too? Did it weigh on him the way it weighed on me? The tension was unbearable. I swallowed hard, gripping my drink a little tighter as I forced myself to focus on Jinhai and Jeneta, their laughter and love filling the space between us. But all I could feel was him. "Isla, you look pretty," Jinhai said. I forced another awkward smile, nodding stiffly. "Oh. Yes, Remy tells me you two met at his mansion." I froze. My body stiffened, but somehow, my neck turned instinctively toward Remy. And there he was, those piercing blue eyes and that perpetually vacant, detached smile that said nothing but held everything. "It was lovely," he drawled, his voice smooth and laced with a kind of cruelty only I could feel. "Though I won’t be in London for long, it’s a pleasure leaving my mansion in your capable ha