Remember Selene

“Where are you coming from, Selene?”

She kept her voice steady even though her heart had already started beating faster. “Work.”

“You dont work this late.”

“I do when i have a big event coming up.”

He set the glass down and walked toward her slowly. His eyes moved over her face first, then down to the heels she was still holding.

Without asking, he took them from her hand and dropped them on the floor beside her feet. The silence that followed felt longer than it should have, and she could feel the weight of his stare even before he spoke again.

“You didn’t answer any of my calls tonight.”

“I was busy.”

“Busy with who?”

She forced herself to meet his eyes. “A client.”

Cassian’s jaw tightened. “Who were you out with, Selene?”

She stayed quiet for a moment and he noticed. The silence stretched again between them until she finally answered, choosing her words carefully because she already knew how this would sound to him.

“Daniel. He asked me to look at one last piece for the exhibition.”

Cassian stepped closer until there was almost no space left between them. She could smell the wine on him and feel the heat coming off his body. When she tried to walk past him toward the stairs, he blocked her path with one arm and kept it there, forcing her to stop.

“Move, Cassian.”

“No.”

He didn’t raise his voice. He just stood there looking at her, and the longer he stayed that close the harder it became for her to keep her breathing steady.

She pushed at his chest, but he caught both of her wrists and pressed them against the wall beside her head. The sudden contact made her breath sieze, and for a moment neither of them spoke. She could feel the heat of his hands on her skin, and every second that passed made the tension thicker.

“You’re still reacting to me,” he said quietly. “Even after spending the evening with him.”

“It was work.”

“At this hour?”

“Yes.”

He leaned in until his mouth was close to her ear, and his voice dropped lower. “You can tell yourself that all you want, but I can see it on your face. I’ll remind you again, that for the next few months you still walk into this house as my wife, and everytime you come home late, I’ll be waiting.”

Selene’s wrists strained against his hold, her pulse was racing under his fingers. “You lost the right to acting like a husband the day you decided silence was enough.”

She felt his grip loosen for a second before it tightened again. He stared at her like he wasn’t sure what to do with what she had just said, and the air between them grew thicker.

Every second that passed made it harder for her to look away. He stayed close, watching her face, and the longer he held her there without moving, the more the tension built until it felt almost impossible to stand still.

Then he dipped his head and kissed her roughly. The force of it pushed her head back against the wall. Her hands went straight to his hair, gripping it tightly as the kiss deepened.

While his mouth stayed on hers, she felt his fingers working the buttons of her top. One by one they came undone until the fabric fell open. He pulled the cups of her bra down and freed her breasts completely.

A soft moan left her throat at the sudden exposure, and the moment the sound escaped he slipped his tongue into her mouth. The kiss turned hungrier, and for a few seconds she forgot why she had been fighting him at all.

Her body moved closer without her permission, and the heat between them made it hard to think. His hands stayed on her, holding her in place while his mouth took what it wanted, and she could feel every second of it in her chest and in the way her fingers tightened in his hair.

He broke the kiss and pulled back just enough to look down.

Her breasts were fully out, nipples tight and visible under the light in the living room. Cassian looked at them slowly, taking his time, before his eyes finally lifted to meet hers. A small smirk touched his mouth, the kind that told her he knew exactly how much power he still had over her body.

Selene’s face burned. She was angry at him, but more than that she was angry at herself for the way her body always seem to respond ti his touch.

She yanked her wrists free and quickly pulled her bra and top back into place, fingers shaking as she tried to button the blouse again. The more she hurried, the harder it became to get the buttons through the holes, and she could still feel his eyes on her the entire time.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she whispered lowly.

Cassian didn’t answer her, he just watched her struggle with the buttons, the smirk still there, and the moment between them felt heavier than any argument they had ever had.

She pushed past him and walked up the stairs without looking back. He stayed at the bottom, and she could feel his eyes on her until she reached the top of the hallway. Every step felt longer than the last, and by the time she reached her bedroom door her hands were still shaking.

Only when she closed the door behind her did she let out the breath she had been holding. Her hands were still shaking, and her nipples were still hard against the fabric of her bra.

She pressed her back to the door and closed her eyes, knowing the six months ahead were going to be much harder than she had planned, and that whatever was left between them was only getting more dangerous with every night like this one.