Damsel in Disguise

ARIELLAThey say obsession is dangerous.I say it’s only dangerous when the wrong person becomes the center of it.Alistair Hertley was never supposed to notice me. A brilliant Oxford professor. A man ten years older than me. Married. Too good to be true. The kind of man the world admires while never questioning what hides beneath his perfect smile.But I questioned it.I crossed countries for him. Traded my old life for the cold stone streets of Oxford just to exist closer to him. To watch him. Study him. Learn every habit, every silence, every crack in the mask he wears so beautifully.Because obsession is hunger disguised as love. The deeper I fall into Alistair’s world, the more I realize he isn’t the charming professor everyone worships. He’s something far worse. And somehow... I still want him more than before.ALISTAIRHuman beings are predictable. Obsessions are not.For over a year, I’ve felt a presence watching me from the shadows of Oxford. Patient. Curious. Punctual. Unnaturally devoted. Most people would categorize it under ’stalking’. I’d call it a pattern waiting to be understood.Then I finally learn who she is.Ariella Keinston is too young, too cunning, too observant for her own good. A girl wrapped in wealth and innocence convincing enough to fool everyone except me-a damsel in disguise. She watches me like she’s searching for something beneath my skin. And the unsettling part is... she’s closer to the truth than anyone has ever been before.I should remove the threat before it becomes a problem. Instead, I let her linger.Because Ariella isn’t frightened by darkness. She orbits around it. The more she gravitates into my life, the more dangerous she becomes-not only to my secrets, but to the control I’ve spent years perfecting.An obsessive student. A dangerously intelligent professor. Hidden experiments. Buried secrets. And a twisted attraction balancing between devotion and destruction.In a world where monsters wear human skin, falling in love might be the deadliest mistake of all.