LOGINAstrid’s POV Seven days. One hundred and sixty-eight hours of staring at the same four walls, the same high-end furniture, and the same flickering red eye of the CCTV camera that I’d grown to loathe more than my own reflection. Xavier was gone. He hadn't come back after the "spicy pasta" incident. I’d expected him to burst through the door that night to deliver the "consequences" he’d promised in that terrifyingly sweet voice of his. I’d braced myself for the training, the pinning, the intense gaze that always made my blood turn into liquid fire. But instead? Nothing. Just the mechanical click of the lock three times a day when Ava brought my meals. "Where is he, Ava?" I asked on day four, stabbing a piece of grilled salmon with more or less murderous intent. "Business trip," Ava replied, her face a mask of professional indifference. She didn't even look at me as she checked the perimeter sensor
Astrid’s POVI tossed the burner phone onto the duvet and collapsed back against the pillows, my heart performing a frantic tap-dance against my ribs. I couldn't believe I’d actually done it. I had called the Reaper of London—the man who currently had me under house arrest—and called him a neanderthal in front of his precious board members."Take that, you bossy monster," I whispered to the empty room, though my hands were shaking.The silence that followed wasn't peaceful; it was charged. I knew Xavier. He was probably vibrating with a mix of lethal embarrassment and possessive fury right now. But the way his voice had softened at the end—that low, sugary growl that promised 'consequences'—made a heat bloom in my stomach that had nothing to do with hunger.I reached for the bar of vintage dark chocolate I’d liberated from his secret stash behind The History of the Byzantine Empire. It was rich, bitter, and tasted like victory.If I’m going to be a captive, I’m going to be a well-fed,
Xavier’s POV The atmosphere in the boardroom was stifling, thick with the scent of expensive cologne and the static of high-stakes anxiety. Twenty of the most powerful executives in the hemisphere sat around the mahogany table, their eyes fixed on the digital projections shimmering against the wall. These were men who moved markets with a whisper, yet they sat in my presence as if they were waiting for a death sentence. I adjusted my cufflinks, my expression a mask of bored lethality. "The shipping lanes in the Adriatic are non-negotiable," I stated, my voice cutting through the room like a piano wire. "If the syndicate wants a piece of the Mediterranean, they pay the tax. Or they find their vessels at the bottom of the trench." A nervous cough rippled through the left side of the table. I didn't care. My mind was partially elsewhere—specifically, thirty floors up in the penthouse. Before coming do
Xavier’s POV The stinging heat of her skin was still vibrating through the palm of my hand. As I walked away from her room, the sound of the deadbolt sliding home felt like a serrated blade across my own throat. I hated locking that door. I hated the way she looked at me—that mix of terror and a defiance so bright it nearly blinded me. But she had to learn. In my world, a lapse in judgment doesn't lead to a lecture; it leads to a body bag. If the Scorpions had reached her before I did, she wouldn't be pouting in a blue lace dress. She’d be a memory. My hand curled into a fist, my knuckles white. Her skin had been so soft—dangerously so. When I’d struck her, every primal instinct I possessed screamed at me to stop playing the captor and start being the man who claimed her. I wanted to squeeze, to pull her flush against me until there wasn't a breath of air between us, but I couldn't. Not yet. Taking her now would be too fast, a fracture in the slow-burn torture of our proximity
Astrid Pov You're eating my food. You're wearing my gold." He looked down at the necklace, then back at my lips. "And you were just lying on that bed thinking about me," he rasped, his eyes darkening with a terrifying certainty. "I saw your face on the monitor. You weren't thinking about escaping. You were thinking about what it would feel like if I didn't stop at the wall last night." My heart stopped. He could see it. He could read the heat in my skin, the way my pulse was jumping in my throat. "You're delusional," I breathed, even as I stepped closer to him, drawn in like a moth to a funeral pyre. "Am I?" He moved then, his hand sliding around the back of my neck, his thumb tilting my chin up. He didn't pin me this time. He just held me, his thumb tracing the line of my jaw with a tenderness that was far more frightening than his anger. "Eat your food, Astrid," he whispered, h
Astrid’s POV When I finally blinked my eyes open, the world was a blur of throbbing pain and stinging salt. My eyelids felt like they’d been glued shut with dried tears, and my head was pounding with a dull, rhythmic ache that suggested my brain was trying to relocate to my neck. I didn’t move at first. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, feeling the uncomfortable bunching of the leggings and hoodie I’d worn for my "grand escape." I felt like a failure—a very tired, very rumpled failure. I rolled onto my side, my stomach letting out a low, predatory growl that echoed in the silence of the room. Hunger was a sharp, nagging needle in my gut. I sat up, rubbing my face and trying to piece together the wreckage of last night. The way Xavier had pinned me to the wall... the heat radiating off him, the absolute, cold fury in his eyes. He’s a monster, I reminded myself.
Astrid povI needed a weapon. Not a gun—I wouldn’t even know how to flick the safety—but something. A tool. A way to prove that this mountain hadn’t swallowed my soul yet.I stood before the rows of books, my eyes blurred with tears I refused to let fall. He thought he knew me because he bought me
Xavier's pov( continue)I watched her. I didn’t move, didn’t even breathe too loud, afraid I’d shatter the first moment of peace we’d had since the mountain road. She looked so small against the height of those shelves, her fingers trembling as they traced the spines.When she reached the middle
Astrid pov The silence of the house was heavier than the stone it was built from. I woke with a start, my heart hammering against my ribs, the ghost of Xavier’s voice still echoing in the corners of the room. The morning light was a cruel, pale gold, spilling over the thousands of books I hadn’t
Xavier's pov The metallic tang of blood in my mouth was the only thing keeping me grounded. Every breath felt like a serrated blade in my chest broken ribs, definitely but the pain was secondary. It was a distraction. A static hum in the background of a much louder symphony:







