LOGINAriaMy phone buzzed on my desk, pulling me out of the notes I was reviewing for tomorrow's class.I picked it up and saw Marcel's name on the screen.The message was short and direct: "Wear what I got for you. I'll pick you up at seven."I frowned, rereading it. What he got for me? I hadn't seen any package or gift from him recently.As if on cue, there was a knock at my dorm door.I opened it to find a delivery guy holding a sleek black box with a ribbon tied around it."Aria?" he asked, checking his tablet."Yeah, that's me.""Sign here."He handed me the tablet, and I scribbled my name quickly.The box was heavier than I expected, and as soon as the door clicked shut behind him, I set it on my bed and untied the ribbon.Inside was a dress.A deep red one, made of silk that slipped through my fingers like water, cooling my skin even before I put it on.It had a high slit up one side that I just knew it would reveal everything with a single step, thin straps that looked like they mi
A long, heavy silence stretched between us, filled only by the sound of our breathing.My chest felt tight, like something buried deep was trying to claw its way out into the light.“I liked it,” I said finally, the words so quiet they were barely a whisper in the large room.“When you used my hands on you. When I woke up and realized what I’d done to you while I was lost in that sleep. It made me feel… wanted. Like I was enough just by existing. Like my body knew exactly what to do even when my brain was completely offline.”He exhaled through his nose in a long, controlled burst, like he’d been holding his breath for an eternity.“That’s it. That's the truth.”“But it scares me to death.”I met his eyes again, forcing myself not to look away.“Because if I admit I want more than that—if I tell you I want you to actually take me when I’m like that, when I can’t say yes or no in the moment—what does that make me?”“Mine.”The word came out rough and jagged, like he’d pulled it from de
Aria's POV.I woke up to the heavy, comforting smell of clean, high-thread-count sheets and the faint, bitter aroma of fresh coffee brewing somewhere nearby.I opened my eyes slowly as it adjusted to the light The bed beneath me was huge, an expansive sea of white linen that felt miles wider than the narrow, lumpy mattress in my cramped dorm room.The pillows were plush, sinking beneath the weight of my head, and they smelled undeniably like him—a woodsy, masculine scent mixed with clean soap and a hint of the gym bag he carried everywhere like a second skin.This wasn’t my room, with its peeling wallpaper and the hum of a communal hallway.I sat up fast, the movement jarring my equilibrium, and my heart began kicking rhythmically against my ribs like a trapped bird.The hotel.This was the same upscale hotel we’d come to that first weekend, the one where we’d spent hours hovering on the precipice, almost crossing the line into something permanent before pulling back at the last seco
MarcelI pushed open the heavy door to Aria’s dorm room, my muscles still burning with a dull, throbbing ache from the extra hour of grueling drills Coach had thrown at us as punishment for a lackluster practice.Sweat clung to my shirt in damp patches, the fabric sticking to my skin, and my legs felt like lead weights that I was forced to drag behind me.The second I stepped inside that small, cramped space, the exhaustion and the lingering irritation of the day simply dropped away, replaced by an immediate, jarring focus.The room was dim, swallowed by shadows and lit only by the soft, ethereal blue glow of her string lights looped haphazardly around the metal headboard.Aria was on her bed, her body twisted violently in the thin sheets as if she were wrestling with an invisible shadow, her chest heaving with shallow, panicked breaths like she’d been running for miles through a forest.Her forehead glistened with a fine sheen of sweat that caught the blue light.Small, choked sounds
Marcel I didn't plan to start showing up at her dorm.That’s the lie I tried to tell myself the first time I ended up there again—standing in the narrow, suffocating hallway with its chipped beige paint and buzzing fluorescent lights that hummed like a low-grade headache.My hands were buried deep in my pockets, my shoulders squared in a way that mimicked ease, pretending I belonged in a space meant for students with futures and meal plans.I told myself it was convenience.Proximity.The undeniable fact that her place was closer to the gym than mine when practice ran late into the night and my muscles were too tired to carry me across town.None of that held up under the slightest bit of scrutiny.I kept coming back because I couldn’t stop thinking about her, a persistent loop of her face and her voice playing against the back of my eyelids.Not in the simple way most people understood obsession.Not in the shallow, transactional way men usually meant when they talked about the wome
Marcel I watched her swallow, her delicate throat working in a way that made my chest tighten with a sudden, sharp possessiveness.Aria sat there on the edge of the leather, drowning in the heavy cotton of my shirt, her legs tucked tightly under her as if she could physically hide the raw vulnerability etched into every line of her frame.But she couldn't hide from me, not after tonight, and certainly not after the way she had looked at me in the car.The air in the penthouse hummed with a low-frequency vibration of unspoken promises, the kind of heavy, jagged tension that could shatter both of us into a thousand pieces if we weren't careful.“Good to know,” I said, my voice coming out rougher and more gravelly than I had intended it to be.I stood up, the movement slow and predatory, and extended my hand toward her in the dim light.She hesitated for a fraction of a second, her eyes flicking up to mine—wide, uncertain, but laced with that same defiant fire I’d glimpsed through the g
Aria’s POV"What did you just say?"I should have sounded stronger, but my voice cracked and my eyes betrayed me, shamelessly dragging over him.Five years.It’s been five years.He was slimmer, his clothes not tailored like before, but he was still fit. Still him.My gaze lifted back to his face.
Aria’s POVNo. No. No.I didn't want him to find out like this. Not tonight. But from the moment I stepped out of the house, my phone had been lighting up with his calls. He knew. Somehow, he always knew.“I’m very sure you heard me,” his voice boomed again, firm and commanding.Marcel’s eyes stay
Aria’s POVI let out a shaky sigh.“Thank you for sharing dinner tonight. I’m sorry for the mess… my husband and I will leave now.”I gave Marcel a small, stiff bow, forcing myself not to let my eyes linger on him even though every part of me wanted to. Just one last look to see if he was alright b
Marcel’s POVDid I take it too far? Definitely.Would I take it back? Absolutely not.I knew Aria better than she probably knew herself. If I had shown up at her doorstep, she would have slammed the door in my face without a second thought. But here...here she couldn’t throw me out. And I have the







