CHAPTER 0013- One night was enough

The next morning felt wrong.

I came downstairs and Chloe was already at the counter making coffee, hair messy, scrolling through her phone. Elias stood on the other side of the kitchen in a work shirt with the sleeves rolled up, reading something on his laptop. The three of us in the same room again. Normal. Except nothing felt normal.

Chloe looked up when I walked in and smiled, but it didn’t fully reach her eyes.

“Sleep okay?”

“Yeah,” I lied.

Elias didn’t look at me. Not right away. When he finally did, it was brief, unreadable, and then he went back to his screen. The distance from last night still sat between us like a third person in the room.

I poured cereal I didn’t want and forced myself to eat. Chloe talked about her shift the night before and some coworker drama. I nodded in the right places. Every so often I’d feel Elias’s attention flick toward me and then away again, like he was testing how long he could go without looking.

By midday the quiet was starting to itch.

Chloe decided we should go to the mall. Get out of the house. I almost said no, but there was no good reason, so I went. We walked around for two hours. She tried on clothes. I carried bags and pretended to care. The whole time my mind kept drifting back to the house. To his office. To the locked door from last night and how much I’d hated turning the lock.

When we got home in the late afternoon, Elias’s car was gone. Note on the counter said he had a late meeting and wouldn’t be back until after eight.

Chloe stretched out on the couch — the same couch — and put on a show. I sat with her for a while, but my skin felt too tight. Eventually I stood up and said I was going to shower and lie down.

She watched me go.

Upstairs, I stood under the water longer than I needed to. When I got out, the house was still quiet. I dried off, pulled on a big T-shirt, and sat on the edge of the guest bed. The door was still locked from last night. I stared at the knob for a long time.

Then I got up and unlocked it.

I told myself it didn’t mean anything. Just in case. Just so the option was there.

By the time his car pulled into the driveway it was past nine. I heard the front door, his keys, the low sound of him talking to Chloe downstairs. Their voices moved around the kitchen for a while. Then footsteps on the stairs. His door opened and closed down the hall.

I lay in the dark with my heart going too fast, staring at the ceiling, waiting.

An hour passed.

Then another.

I started to think he was serious about the break lasting longer than one night. The thought made something sharp twist under my ribs. I rolled onto my side, then onto my back again, restless. My body still remembered every place he’d touched me. The absence of it felt louder than the presence ever had.

A little after midnight I heard movement in the hall.

Soft footsteps. Stopping outside my door.

I held my breath.

The knob turned slowly. The door opened just enough for him to step inside, then clicked shut again. He didn’t lock it. He just stood there in the dark, looking at me.

“You unlocked it,” he said quietly.

“Yeah.”

“I told you to leave it locked.”

“I know.”

Silence stretched between us. He exhaled through his nose, slow, like he was deciding something.

“Chloe’s still awake,” he said. “She’s in the living room. Couldn’t sleep.”

My stomach dropped. “Then why are you here?”

He walked closer. Stopped at the edge of the bed. I could smell his cologne and the faint trace of whiskey.

“Because one night was enough,” he said. “And because you’re lying here with the door unlocked like you’re waiting for me to break.”

I sat up slowly. The T-shirt rode up my thighs. His eyes dropped for half a second and then came back to my face.

“We can’t,” I whispered. “Not with her downstairs.”

“I know.”

He didn’t touch me. Just stood there, close enough that I could have reached out, the tension between us thick enough to choke on. My pulse was everywhere. I could feel how wet I already was and hated how easy it still was for him.

He leaned down, bracing one hand on the mattress, mouth close to my ear.

“Tomorrow,” he said, voice low and rough. “She’s working a double. House empty from noon until late. I’m going to take my time with you. No rushing. No hand over your mouth. You’re going to take everything I give you and you’re going to be loud if I want you to be.”

My breath caught.

He straightened up. Looked at me for another long second in the dark.

“Leave it unlocked tomorrow,” he said. “And Riley… don’t make me wait.”

Then he left.

I sat there after the door closed, heart slamming, the promise of tomorrow already burning under my skin.

Downstairs, I could still hear the low sound of the television.

Chloe was still awake.

And I already knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep.