I squeal and rush towards the bathroom, the sound of Asher's low chuckle following me as I slam the door shut behind me. My cheeks are burning, and not just from the embarrassment, I’m still reeling from everything. From Leon’s little face full of joy… from Asher’s smile… from the way my body aches in the best and worst ways.The shower hits me like a reset button. Steam curls around me as I stand under the hot water, letting it wash away the physical evidence of the afternoon, but none of the emotion. I press my forehead to the cool tile and close my eyes.What am I doing?How did I go from wild limbs and tangled sheets? And now… now I have to go downstairs and pretend like I’m not buzzing with every kind of feeling imaginable.When I come out in fresh clothes, simple jeans and a t-shirt, I feel more like myself again. Not the version that was crying in his arms this morning or moaning in the bed this afternoon. Just… me. Casey. Leon’s mom.Asher is standing near the dresser, shirtle
We were lost.Lost in the passion.Lost in the euphoria.I was spent....so completely undone, my limbs heavy, my thoughts floating. I didn’t think I’d ever gone that hard, or if Asher had ever gone so hard on me before. I didn’t know which it was, me or him or both but I was still riding that high, still drifting in the aftermath, when I heard a voice.A distant voice.“Hello? We’re home!”For a second, I thought it was part of a dream. A different world bleeding into this one. Then I heard the voice that snapped me fully awake.“Mom! We bought you some ice cream!”Leon. Oh God!My eyes flew open and I shot upright. Asher was next to me, still fast asleep, completely lost in whatever world he’d drifted to. Stark naked. But so was I.Panic gripped my chest. Leon was coming into my room. He was going to bust in. And I didn’t know what horrified me more, Asher being here, Asher seeing Leon, Leon seeing us like this… or the fact that Leon had no idea this man was his father.I didn’t have
Asher lifts me up from the kitchen island in his arms like I’m a doll and walks up the stairs to the bedrooms as if he is familiar with the place. I am about to ask him just that when he grunts,"Which one's yours?"I point towards my bedroom with my finger and as soon as we’re inside the said room, he throws me on the bed. I bounce on the mattress, then attempt to sit up. I’m slammed back down when his weight crashes on top of me and his fingers wrap around my throat. “I still want you. I don't think I can have enough of you.....”Pressure builds in my stomach at the mere feel of his body on top of mine, dwarfing me, dominating, intimidating. It's absolutely addictive. I didn’t realise how much I missed him until his skin touched mine again. Of course, I want him again too. What kind of a question is that??My heart races, my blood roars, but all I can do is stare at him. I sit up so I’m cradling his thighs and undo the button of his shirt with trembling fingers, and he lets me.“Fu
I need this.I need some form of connection with him. I also need to own a part of him. I need to turn his world upside down just like he did to mine. A growl rips from deep inside him as he kisses me with a ruthless vigour that steals my thoughts. It’s not a kiss, it’s a possession. His lips move against mine with a rough intensity, leaving no room for breath or softness.Just this. Us. In this moment.His fingers tighten around my throat, angling my face up so he can devour me some more. The kiss is a clash, a war of heat and anger as he grazes his teeth over my bottom lip and plunges his tongue into my mouth and consumes me. The taste of him is fire, burning every thought from my mind. His breath is harsh against my mouth, his lips relentless, like he’s trying to swallow me up, break me.There’s no finesse in the way he kisses me right now. It’s neither controlled nor refined. It’s not even disciplined like the way he fucks me. God! I miss fucking him.... I crave it. I love it. I f
His hand brushed the counter beside my shoulder. And then his voice—his voice came again, low and quiet.“I didn’t know how I’d feel seeing you again.”I opened my eyes and there he was.Asher.Don of the Romano family. The most dangerously handsome man I’d ever laid eyes on. A man dressed like a Roman emperor thrown into modern-day war—classic, composed, powerful. Every inch of him screamed control. Power. Lethality. But also... something else.He was the man who did witchcraft to my body without even trying. And he was standing in my kitchen.After nearly a year, after silence, distance, fear, after burying myself in motherhood and caution and regret, he was here. I had worked so hard to forget him. To forget how he made me feel like I was the centre of the storm, the reason the sky broke open.But now here he stood. And I think... I should have been happy.I should’ve been smiling, maybe even jumping into his arms, gasping in disbelief. But instead, I reached for him.I pulled him
Alex Volkov, Prince to the Russian Empire, the Bratva royalty—was dead.Like dead, dead.I still couldn’t swallow the word. I stood there, egg dripping between my fingers, the shell cracked and forgotten on the floor. The pan on the stove hissed and sizzled in the background, but it couldn’t compete with the pounding of my heart.Shot.In public.In the street.Alex Volkov. The man who haunted my nightmares ever since he walked into Asher’s cage for me....grinning like the devil himself, that smug, detached smirk that never reached his eyes, as if he knew something I didn’t.The one who threatened Asher.The one who said he was going to marry me.The one who wanted me not because he loved me but because he wanted to take away whatever Asher loved. He wanted to play with Asher’s toy.Or snuff it out.Asher had told me the last time I left that he needed time. Just time. “Let me handle this,” he’d said.And it seems like Alex Volkov’s time had just run out.The screen on the TV shifted.