LOGINChapter 149Aiden I let out a frustrated breath that turned into a quiet whimper when the cold touched a particularly dark bruise. He did not stop. He worked over both hips with the same slow attention, cold then warm, cold then warm, until the memory of Ethan’s hands felt further away and the only thing left was the controlled pressure of this man who still had not taken the mask off or told me his name.This was not how he usually moved. That thought kept circling. The mystery man I remembered was sharper, meaner with the tools, less interested in cleaning cuts and more interested in making new ones. This version was still possessive as hell but the care under it threw me off. He was treating the injuries like they mattered. Like I mattered beyond the wetness between my legs. It made the control feel heavier somehow. Like he had all the time in the world and I had none.“You are quiet,” he said.“I am trying to figure out what the hell this is.”“This is me deciding you are too sor
Chapter 149Aiden I heard the clinking first. Metal against glass or glass against metal, sharp little sounds coming from the open box right next to the bed. My stomach dropped so hard I almost doubled over. Blindfold kept everything black but those noises painted pictures in my head that I did not want. Blade. Something heavy. Something that would open the cut on my side wider or dig into the bruises Ethan left. I sucked in a breath that shook and my hands twitched on the mattress even though he told me not to move.“What is that,” I said, voice already too high. “If that is a knife I swear….”“It is not a knife.” His voice stayed low and even through the mask. “Stop inventing things. You are already sore enough without adding stories.”The clinking kept going for another second. I could hear him shifting items around like he had all the time in the world. My pulse jumped in my throat. The towel felt useless now. Everything felt useless. I was still sitting on the edge of the bed e
Chapter 148 Aiden I turned my head. The cloth came over my eyes and the world went dark. He tied it firm at the back, not gentle, not rough, just exact. The second the light disappeared my other senses sharpened. I could hear the soft shift of his clothes, the quiet click of something else being moved in the box, the sound of my own breathing that had gotten faster without permission.“Stay right there,” he ordered. “Do not move your hands. Do not fix the towel. Do not touch yourself. You are already too sore and too wet and you are going to sit with both of those facts while I look at what he left on you.”I sat. The blindfold made everything feel closer and farther at the same time. His fingers brushed the bite mark on my neck, tracing the edges. Then they moved down to the bruises on my hips, pressing just enough to make me feel how tender the skin was. When he reached the cut on my side I flinched and he stopped.“Breathe,” he said. “I am not going to open it. I am just checking
Chapter 146 Aiden The door opened and it was not Ethan.A figure stepped in wearing all black, black clothes from head to toe, black face cap pulled low over his forehead, black face mask covering everything below the eyes so only the eyes showed. I froze on the edge of the bed with the towel still clutched in one hand and the bruises on my hips and the cut on my side fully out in the open. The man did not speak at first. He just stood there and looked at me the way someone looks at something that already belongs to him. Then the recognition hit me hard. The way the black was worn, the quiet authority in the posture, the familiar weight of the gaze. It was the mysterious man.He closed the door behind him without a sound and set a black box of tools on the nearest surface. He did not rush. He studied every mark Ethan left, the teeth on my neck, the bruises on my hips, the cut that still pulled when I breathed. His voice came out low and even through the mask.“Tsk tsk, you already
Chapter 145 Aiden Ethan did not look at me. His hands were fists at his sides. “He is trying to force a choice.”“I am giving you a choice,” Jovian’s father said. “You can fight me here in this room and watch everything fall apart, or you can put clothes on, walk out with me, and handle the matter the way it needs to be handled. Quietly. Without scenes. Without more bruises that people will ask about. Without giving him the full truth before you are ready to lose him over it.”My side ached. The cut pulled when I shifted my weight. I kept the towel tight and stared at the side of Ethan’s face. “Ethan. Look at me.”He still did not.Jovian’s father kept going like I was not even in the room. “I have watched you with him. I have watched the way you look at anyone else who gets near. I have watched you act like he is something you get to keep by force. That is not how this works. You do not get to damage the situation and then pretend the consequences will not reach you. You will contr
Chapter 144 Aiden I opened the door.Jovian’s father stood there in a dark suit that looked like it cost more than most people made in a year. His hair was perfect. His shoes were perfect. Everything about him was clean and sharp except his eyes. He looked past me first. Straight at Ethan.Ethan still had the towel around his waist and nothing else. Water was still drying on his shoulders. The marks I had left on him were out in the open, same as the ones he had left on me. My neck throbbed where his teeth had been. The cut on my side pulled every time I breathed. I felt every bruise like it was brand new under the towel I had wrapped around myself.Jovian’s father did not look at the bruises on me for long. His eyes went back to Ethan and stayed there.“You,” he said. His voice was quiet and even. “Get dressed.”Ethan stepped forward so he was half in front of me. The towel shifted when he moved. “You do not walk into this suite and start giving orders.”“I walk wherever I need to
Jovian’s POV I’ve always been the safe one, the quiet one, the guy who sculpts everything out of clay because it’s “art” and not because I’m horny twenty-four seven, but let’s be real, half the time it is because I’m horny, and the other half it’s because Aiden’s the only person I’ve ever wanted t
Aiden’s POV The second I finally got my headphones back on and the bass hard enough to rattle my teeth, I thought maybe, just maybe the universe was giving me a five-minute break from being its personal punching bag. Laptop open, I was trying to prepare the materials concerning my scholarship,
Aiden’s POV Dr. Patel kept clicking through screens like my entire future wasn’t hanging by a thread, muttering about “system flags” and “additional documentation” while I sat there nodding like a broken toy, hoodie still knotted around my waist, ass stinging every time I shifted. She finally pri
Aiden’s POV I stood there against that brick wall outside the subway exit for what felt like forever, just breathing in shaky little bursts and wiping my face on my sleeve like that would erase the last twenty minutes. My jeans were fucked ripped open at the back seam, hanging half off one hip, th







