LOGINFernando's POV I woke up to my name being spoken like a warning.“Fernando.”It wasn’t screamed in a panicked way which was much worse.My eyes opened instantly, my body already moving before my mind fully caught up. The bed was warm but wrong with too much space on one side. My arm reached out on instinct and met nothing but rumpled empty sheets.I sat up sharply, my heart slamming hard.“Fernando,” Marlo said again, closer now.I turned my head and saw him standing just inside the room, his posture rigid, his face carefully neutral in the way my men get when something has already gone to hell and they’re bracing for impact.“Where is he?” I asked.My voice was calm and that scared even me.Marlo hesitated for half a second too long. “He’s… not in the room, boss.”Silence stretched.The room smelled like last night of heat, sweat, and the faint trace of Michael’s skin still clinging to the air like a ghost that hasn’t realized it was dead yet. My jaw tightened.“Explain,” I said.
Michael's POV I woke up before the light changed. That’s how I knew Fernando was still asleep.The room was quiet in that thick, heavy way that only came after a night where everything has been taken out of you, wrung dry and left scattered like clothes on the floor. Fernando’s arm sat heavy across my waist, possessive even in sleep.I lay still, staring at the ceiling, counting his breaths and it suggested he was exhausted. Good.That part mattered more than anything else right now. If he wakes too early, the plan dies before it even finishes being born.And yes, this was a plan.I don’t pretend otherwise, not even to myself.Arguing with Fernando is like punching a wall and expecting it to crack before your bones do. Words don’t reach him when he’s decided something. Logic slides right off and anger just feeds on him. I learned that the hard way.But desire is the one language he doesn’t defend against.I shifted carefully, inch by inch, testing the weight of his arm and the an
Fernando’s POVMichael was still pressed against the wall when I realized my hands were shaking, not with weakness, with restraint.That was the part no one ever understood about me. They thought control meant calm, but control, real control, was this. Standing inches away from the person who could ruin me, with every instinct screaming to take, to dominate, to end the chaos one way or another and choosing not to.My fingers were at his throat but i wasn't crushing or choking him, even though I really wanted to.I could feel the subtle movement beneath my palm as he swallowed, the steady beat of his pulse against my skin. His body refused to betray fear even now, even with the room still echoing from shouting and slammed doors and everything that had gone wrong tonight.He looked at me the way he always did when he was furious and unafraid, like he dared me.“Do it,” he said quietly.The words sliced straight through me, clean and merciless.“Try it.”My jaw tightened so hard it hu
Michael’s POVI stared up at Fernando from the floor, my chest rising and falling too fast.He stood over me like a storm that had decided, at the very last second, not to break and that was the worst part.If he had shouted, if he had hit me again, if he had lost control completely, I would have understood it. But this? This restraint wrapped in fury? This silence sharpened by emotion terrified me far more.Fernando’s shoulders were tense, his whole body locked in a battle he was fighting entirely within himself. His jaw was clenched so hard I could hear his teeth grind when he exhaled. One hand was curled into a fist at his side, knuckles white, veins standing out like cords beneath his skin.In his other hand was his unraised belt that just hung there, loose and heavy, swaying slightly with his breathing.My pulse thundered in my ears, loud enough that I wondered if he could hear it too. My body was still buzzing from adrenaline, from fear, from anger, from the sharp sting on my
Fernando’s POVFor a heartbeat, I couldn’t move.The world narrowed to the outline of Michael’s body framed by the open window, moonlight spilling over his shoulders like a silent invitation. One leg was already over the ledge. His fingers clung to the stone sill with grim resolve, his knuckles white, his muscles taut.He wasn’t hesitating, he wasn’t afraid, he had already decided and that realization hurt more than any bullet ever had.“Michael!” I shouted, my voice breaking through the room like shattered glass.He didn’t look back and that terrified me more than if he had.My body moved on instinct, pure animal panic driving me forward. I crossed the room in long, desperate strides and wrapped my arms around his waist, hauling him back just as his grip slipped. He sucked in a sharp breath as we stumbled, colliding with the bed, the curtains moving wildly as the window remained open, mocking me.“Let go of me!” he yelled, thrashing violently.“No!” I snapped, tightening my hold. “
Michael's POVThe entire scenario felt too familiar.The lock, the silence, the way the walls seemed to press closer the longer I stayed inside.I stood in the middle of the bedroom Fernando had locked me in, my chest rising and falling too fast, my hands clenched into fists so tight my nails dug into my palms. The room was elegant with soft lighting, expensive furniture, the faint lingering scent of cologne and flowers from a wedding that never truly finished but none of that mattered right now.I was locked in, again, and I hated it even more this time.Fernando had done this before but it was a different house, different circumstances but the same stupid excuse."This is for your own good."A bitter laugh escaped my throat.“I’m not doing this,” I muttered to myself. “Not again.”I paced from one end of the room to the other, my footsteps sharp against the floor. Every second I stayed here felt like surrender, like I was letting Santiago win by sitting quietly while he breathed,







