Mag-log inCole’s POVShe came out of his room smelling like him.I knew that scent. Sharp and sweet, like blood and sugar, and it clung to her like it had a right.My fists curled inside my pockets as I leaned against the hallway wall, watching her without moving. Aria didn’t see me at first. She looked dazed. Her lips were swollen, cheeks flushed, and her walk had the soft ache of being used.By him.Her soft heels clicked past me, and then, mid-step she froze.She felt me.I didn’t say a word. Just pushed off the wall, slow, deliberate. I didn’t need to speak. My presence alone made her tremble.She turned slightly, her eyes wide when they met mine. Guilt. Caught red-handed. But beneath that shame was a flicker of something else, excitement. Like part of her wanted to be punished. Wanted to be owned.Good.Because I had no intention of letting her walk away.“You done playing games, Aria?”My voice was low. Razor sharp.She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her tongue darted out to wet
She didn’t plan on seeing Elias again.Not really.Not after what happened with Cole.Not after being spanked until her thighs trembled, after he whispered filthy promises into her ear, after he made her look into a mirror and say who she belonged to.And yet here she was... sitting at a rooftop lounge, legs crossed, nursing a drink, pretending like her heart wasn’t pounding loud enough for the whole damn city to hear.Elias leaned back in his chair, watching her over the rim of his glass. His mouth twitched into something that could’ve been amusement… or danger.“You came,” he said, his voice silk over steel.Aria swallowed. “I wasn’t sure I should.”“But you did.”She nodded once.“You smell like him,” Elias murmured, eyes flicking lazily down her body. “Still marked. He fuck you again?”Her stomach flipped.“None of your business,” she replied softly, looking away.He chuckled. “Maybe not. But he won’t like this.”“I didn’t tell him.”Elias leaned closer. “No. You didn’t.”She coul
Her face pressed against the sheets, her body trembling from the aftershocks of his possession, and still...still...Cole wasn’t done.Not even close.She felt it in the way he gripped her hips, still holding her in place. In the rasp of his breathing. In the silence stretching between them, hot and heavy and almost unbearable.“I can feel your heartbeat,” he murmured, his fingers dragging lazily down her spine. “It’s frantic. Are you afraid?”Aria tried to answer, but her throat was dry. Her lips moved without sound.His hand slid up to the nape of her neck, fingers wrapping around it... not choking, just holding. Anchoring. “Speak.”“…Yes,” she whispered.A satisfied noise rumbled from his chest. “Good.”Her pulse jumped.“Fear sharpens everything. You hear clearer. Feel deeper. And when you break?” He leaned in, lips brushing her temple, his voice a soft menace. “You’ll remember exactly who made you fall apart.”She bit her bottom lip, trying not to moan.He gripped her hair and tug
“Kneel.”She froze. Just for a breath."Now"Then slowly, like a trembling flame bowing to the wind, Aria dropped to her knees before him.God.The sight of her... submitting, surrendering, spine straight but hands trembling... made something primal roar awake inside him. His chest rose with a deep inhale, but he didn’t move. Not yet. He wanted to savor this. The sweet, slow crumble of her resistance.“I told you not to run,” he murmured, voice low and lethal.Her lashes fluttered but she didn’t look away. Her mouth opened like she wanted to say something... defend herself, maybe. But she must’ve thought better of it.Good girl.“Did he make you come?” Cole asked, crouching in front of her.The question sliced through the thick air like a knife. She blinked. Her mouth parted in shock, then clamped shut.He didn’t need an answer. Her blush told him everything. The shame in her eyes. The flicker of guilt behind her defiance.Cole leaned closer, one hand coming to rest on her jaw, forci
Aria's POVShe shouldn’t have looked.But something...some pull she didn’t want to name... had drawn her gaze like a thread, taut and trembling, right to where he stood.Cole.Her breath hitched. His eyes were already on her. Watching her like he had never stopped. Like he knew what she had been doing. Who she'd been with. The shame came first. Then the heat. It bloomed under her skin and settled low in her belly.He didn’t move. Just stared.God, she hated that he had this effect on her.Elias had just left her with one last lingering kiss, his soft words still ringing in her ear, but it was Cole she felt. The weight of his presence. The sharpness of his attention. It was like walking into a flame she couldn’t see but could feel, licking at her skin with every step she took.Her fingers curled tightly around the hem of her coat. She could still feel Elias’s hands on her. Could still taste the wine, the honey-sweet afterglow of his touch.And yet Cole’s gaze was the one burning throug
He didn’t sleep that night.He didn’t even go home.After Aria disappeared into that car, Cole went back inside The Velvet Room, walked straight past the dancers and the polished wood bars, down into the lower wing—a place few members ever saw. It wasn’t part of the club. Not really. It was his sanctuary. His temple of control.A locked room at the end of a private corridor.Cold steel. Low lights. A chair bolted to the center of the floor. Shelves of implements lined with precision. And in the corner—his journal. A black leather notebook with only one name on the first page now:Aria.He sat for hours. Didn’t touch a damn thing. Just stared at the blank space beneath her name, the pen poised in his gloved hand.She had let someone else touch her. That shouldn’t have mattered. The club was built for that kind of freedom. And Elias was harmless. Gentle, even.But Cole had seen it in her eyes the last time they were together—in the tremble of her voice when she said “Yes, Sir,” in the fl







