His hand was still in her hair.
Not gentle. Not rough. Just… steady. Like he had no doubt she'd let him hold her there.
Alexis licked the taste of wine from her lips, eyes on his.
"I thought you'd taste like danger," she murmured.
Kai didn't smile, but something in his face tightened. Like her words went somewhere he didn't want to name.
"You don't know what I taste like," he said.
"Then maybe you should show me."
His grip faltered for half a second.
Only a second.
Then he pulled back.
Not far but enough for the air to cool between them.
"You don't belong in places like this," he said, watching her with that maddening stillness. "Not in rooms like this. Not with someone like me."
Alexis tilted her head, slowly. "Is this the part where I'm supposed to be scared?"
He said nothing.
"Because you keep circling the point like you're expecting me to bolt."
Kai's gaze flicked to her neck.
Just once.
She didn't miss it.
She didn't ask.
Instead, she took another sip of the deep red wine and walked past him slowly, her fingers trailing across the edge of the bar.
"Whatever it is you think I don't understand…" she said, glancing back over her shoulder, "I probably do. Or worse I probably don't care."
Kai turned to face her fully. His expression unreadable. Calculated. And a little… thrown.
"I'm not safe, Alexis."
She walked up to him again, closer this time. Closer than she had before.
"Neither is fire," she whispered. "But we still light candles."
His jaw clenched.
It was the first real emotion she'd seen crack through that perfect, eerie calm.
"I've killed before," he said, voice low, like it cost him something to say it.
She didn't blink.
Didn't move.
She just held his stare. Quiet. Unflinching.
"I've been hurt before," she replied simply.
For a moment, the room went still.
And Alexis knew whatever game this was, she had just flipped the rules.
Kai stepped back not in fear, but something that looked very much like control.
His voice dropped. "I should take you back to the ballroom."
She nodded once. "You should."
Neither of them moved.
And when she walked past him again, brushing his arm, she didn't look back.
But she felt it, that restrained tension in him, coiled like a storm he didn't want her to see.
And for the first time since arriving at the ball, Alexis smiled.
Not because she felt safe.
But because she didn't and still didn't run.