Burning Under His Gaze

This is all I ever wanted from you Lucian. Call my name like you desire me and let your pain go away. 

I could feel the heat radiating from his skin, like a burning fever that seemed to melt the very air between us. The way he said my name wasn't with the usual ice or the sharp edge of a blade. It was a low, guttural sound that vibrated deep in his chest, a sound that bypassed my ears and went straight to my soul. It was the sound of a man drowning and finding the only piece of wood in a vast, dark ocean.

I gently rested my hand on his arm that he used to pin my neck. His skin was like hot marble, his muscles corded and hard under my touch. I didn't try to pull his hand away. Instead, I leaned into the pressure, letting him see that I wasn't afraid of his strength or his anger. I held his eyes, those swirling pools of gold and silver, saying like a whisper, “Lucian.”

He pressed his nose harder on mine, his breathing so heavy and it felt like a storm was trapped in the small space between our faces. I know he was trying to hold back himself. I could see the battle playing out in the way his jaw was locked tight, in the way his pupils dilated until the gold was almost swallowed by darkness. He was a man standing on a cliff, fighting the wind that wanted to push him over. I could feel his wolf letting out that ancient, wild part of him that didn't know about family feuds or murdered Alphas. His wolf only knew one thing that I was his.

While he fought himself, I couldn't control the urge, the drive that was pulling me to him. It was like a magnetic force that had been building for fifteen long, lonely years. Every night I spent dreaming of him, every day I spent building my empire just to prove I was worthy of standing beside him, it all came rushing to the surface. I wanted to disappear into him. I wanted to burn in the fire he was making.

His mouth brushed my lips as his breath groaned. It wasn't a kiss yet, just the promise of one, a ghost of a touch that made my skin tingle and my knees go weak. I could taste the wine on his breath, mixed with the raw, masculine scent that was uniquely his. I tried to take his lips to my mouth, tilting my head back, offering him everything I was. It was a desperate act and plea but I couldn't resist him. My dignity, my pride as a CEO who bowed to no one, it all evaporated in the heat of his gaze.

I have wanted him all to myself for so long. I wanted to scrub away the hate and the memories of blood and replace them with this. I said again almost like a whisper, “Lucian, take me…”

The words seemed to shatter the last of his control. His eyes flared up in pure gold, staring at me with pure desire. It was a look that stripped me bare, more than my lack of clothes ever could. Nothing was hidden anymore. The mask of the cold, vengeful Alpha had fallen, leaving behind a man who was starving for the woman in his arms. I could see that he desired me more than I ever did. It was written in the way his hand trembled against my throat, in the way he pressed his body against mine until I could feel the frantic thud of his heart.

He leaned in, his lips finally crashing against mine with a hunger that was almost violent. It was a collision of souls, a breaking of dams. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer, wanting to be bruised by him, wanting to be marked. For a few glorious seconds, the world outside this room didn't exist. There was no Harvey name, no Raven Pack, no dead fathers. There was only the fire.

But then, the world came crashing back in.

A sharp, shrill sound cut through the heavy silence of the room. Lucian’s phone rang on the bedside table.

The sound was like a bucket of ice water thrown over a burning building. Lucian stiffened instantly. The gold in his eyes flickered and died, replaced by a sudden, jarring clarity. It came as a shock to him, a reminder of the life he lived outside this bed, the responsibilities he held, and the hate he had sworn to keep alive.

He left me immediately. He didn't just step back Lucian recoiled as if my touch had suddenly turned into poison. He pushed himself away from the wall, almost feeling like I’m like a smelly trash as he turned away immediately. He wouldn't even look at me. He walked toward the phone with jerky, robotic movements, his back a wall of cold, hard muscle.

Immediately I felt so embarrassed. The heat that had been burning in my veins turned into a cold, sickening shame. I stood there against the wall, my breath still coming in gasps, my lips swollen from a kiss that he was already trying to forget. How did I want a man that hated my blood and family name? How did I let myself be so vulnerable to someone who saw me as a curse?

I felt small. I felt like the girl who used to watch him from the corner, hoping for a crumb of his attention while the rest of the pack threw stones at me. I had built a multi-million dollar company. I had people who looked up to me. And yet, here I was, begging for the touch of a man who looked at me with disgust the moment he came to his senses.

How do I fell so cheaply in his seduction? I asked myself, the words felt like a bitter poison in my mind. I held my bare breasts so tight, my arms wrapped around myself as if I could shield my heart from the blow that was coming. My skin felt cold now, the air in the room suddenly feeling like a tomb.

I rushed and put on a night robe, my fingers fumbling with the belt as I tried to cover myself. I needed to get out. I needed to find a place where I could breathe without the scent of him filling my lungs. I moved toward the door, my heels silent on the plush carpet.

As I was about opening the massive oak door, my hand trembling on the heavy brass handle, Lucian’s voice stopped me. It wasn't the voice of the man who had just whispered my name. It was the voice of the Alpha.

“Tell Hannah, that you failed this time Sophia,” he said. The words were laced with almost a mockery, a cruel sneer that told me he thought this whole thing had been a calculated play for power. He thought I was just a puppet for my mother’s greed.

I froze. I turned immediately not knowing what to say. For once I was out of words. My throat felt like it was full of sand. I wanted to tell him that it wasn't my mother that led me here, rather it was the moon goddess that declared us mates and it was just a bonding sake! I wanted to tell him that I hated her schemes as much as he did. I wanted to tell him that I loved him, but the words died before they could reach my lips. What was the point? He had already decided who I was.

But as I turned my eyes met his. The transformation was complete. The gold was gone, and in its place, his eyes shot red. The wolf was still there, but it wasn't the wolf that desired me. It was the wolf that wanted to protect the pack from a threat. He looked at me with a hatred so pure that it made my knees shake.

“Sophia, I don’t want to see you in the alpha room again, stay away from me!”