Chapter 6: Silk and Shadows

The master bathroom was larger than my entire apartment. Steam billowed around the marble walls as I stood under the rainfall showerhead, letting the scorching water wash away the alley dirt and the lingering terror of the night.

​When I stepped out and dried off, I reached for the only piece of clothing hanging on the golden hook—the nightgown Kael had mentioned.

​My cheeks instantly burned crimson as I held it up.

​It wasn't a modest cotton pajama set. It was a floor-length slip of liquid black silk, held up by two razor-thin spaghetti straps, with a plunging neckline and a slit running all the way up the left thigh. When I slid it over my head, the cool, feather-light fabric clung to every curve of my waist and hips like a second skin, leaving almost nothing to the imagination.

​I can't walk out there wearing this, I panicked, staring at my flushed reflection in the vanity mirror. With my damp dark hair tumbling wildly over my shoulders and my lips still swollen from his kiss on the desk, I didn't look like a broke kitchen worker anymore. I looked like an Alpha’s temptation.

​A sharp knock echoed against the heavy bathroom door.

​"Don't make me come in there and dress you myself, Elara," Kael’s deep, gravelly voice rumbled through the wood, sending a delicious shiver straight down my spine. "You have ten seconds."

​Swallowing my pride, I unlocked the door and stepped out into the dimly lit bedroom.

​Kael was lounging against the plush black headboard of the king-sized bed, wearing nothing but a pair of low-slung gray sweatpants. The amber glow of the bedside lamp cast dramatic shadows across the sculpted ridges of his bare chest and the dark tribal tattoos wrapping around his bicep. He was reading a file on a tablet, but the second the bathroom door clicked, his head snapped up.

​He froze.

​Slowly, Kael lowered the tablet onto the nightstand. His stormy eyes darkened into pure molten gold as they dragged from my bare feet, up the long expanse of my exposed leg through the slit, lingering on the curve of my hips and the rapid rise and fall of my chest beneath the thin black silk.

​The air in the room turned suffocatingly hot. A low, possessive growl vibrated deep in his chest.

​"Come here," Kael commanded, his voice thick, rough, and stripped of all calmness.

​My feet moved on their own accord, drawn by an invisible magnetic pull until I was standing right beside the mattress.

​Without a word, Kael reached out, wrapped his large, warm hand around my wrist, and tugged me down onto the bed. I gasped as I tumbled across the silk sheets, landing right beside him. Before I could scramble to the far edge of the mattress, his heavy, muscular arm snaked around my waist, hauling my back flush against his bare, scorching chest.

​"Kael!" I breathed out, my heart hammering wildly against my ribs as his bare skin burned right through the thin silk of my nightgown. "We agreed this marriage is only on paper! You can't hold me like this!"

​"My wolf hasn't slept in four months, little mouse," Kael rasped against the back of my neck, burying his face in my damp hair and inhaling a deep, shuddering breath. "Every night, the bloodline curse tries to tear my mind apart. Right now, your skin and your scent are the only things keeping the beast caged."

​His calloused palm splayed wide across my stomach over the silk, holding me pinned securely against the hard length of his body. I could feel every ragged breath he took, and the steady, powerful thud of his heart against my spine.

​"Just stay still," he whispered darkly, his warm lips brushing the sensitive hollow right beneath my ear, making my toes curl. "Don't fight me tonight, Elara. Because if you keep squirming against me in that damn silk dress... paper contract or not, I won't be responsible for what happens next."

​I froze immediately, my breath catching in my throat at the raw, undisguised hunger in his voice. Closing my eyes, I let myself sink back into the heat of his embrace, terrified by a single, undeniable truth: I didn't want him to let go.