Half-dead

The morning light sliced through the blinds, casting long shadows across the polished floors as Xavier stepped into the sterile silence of his living room. Cathleen perched like an ice queen on her minimalist throne and didn't even glance up. Her fingers curled sensuously around the porcelain mug, the steam from her coffee mingling with the frost in her gaze.

"Welcome home, Mr. Knight," she drawled, her voice a silken threat.

"Cat, I—" His words were clumsy, tripping over the tension and thickening the air.

She cut him off as sharply as a whip's crack. "I believe we have to take care of that name, Mr. Knight. It's Cathleen or Mrs. Knight to you."

His jaw was clenched, muscles working beneath stubble. The fight had drained from him; every inch of his body screamed for a reprieve, but none was coming. He was a man on the edge and Cathleen... Cathleen was the abyss staring back.

He sighed, a sound heavy with the weight of unspoken battles. "Mrs. Knight, we need to talk."

A smile played o