LOGINNINA’S POVI know what Cassian is about to say before a single word can reach me.I can read it in the way his lips part, the way his eyes drop, and the way his entire body looks like it’s bracing for impact—and it makes my blood run cold.I want the truth. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. But what happens when the truth threatens to shatter the little slice of peace we just found?I try not to look at the blood on his forehead when all I want to do is to find out why. Eyes. Look at his eyes. Red rimmed and glazed over in the faint light, he blinks slowly and drops his gaze to my feet.No, look at me. Please.“Nina…” his voice comes out raspy, and I make up my mind then and there.“I…I was going to say that when I left, I talked to—““Can it wait?” I blurt, ribs tightening as he lifts his gaze back to my face.“What?”My nails dig into my palm.“This…thing. Can it…wait?”His brows twitch, but I watch his shoulders broaden ever so slightly.“Absolutely.” He says, eyes still searching my fa
CASSIAN’S POVThe second I step out of the room, the love I left on my lips dies—and the monster I’ve spent all evening pretending I buried wakes the fuck up.“What’s going on?” I hold the phone to my ear, hearing Sloane’s steady breathing on the other end.“Hey, um…are you up?” Her voice rasps. I hear a rustle and a deep sigh.“Yes,” I glance back at the bedroom door, “I’m kind of in the middle of something…is everything alright?”She hesitates, and I feel my heart clench. “Sloane? Is it the baby?”“What? No! The baby is fine, it’s just…” her voice trails off, and I hear her sigh, “Alex reached out.”Shit.I glance over my shoulder at the door, knots tightening in my gut.This will take longer than I thought. Forgive me, Nina. I cross the hallway to the foyer, phone tucked against my ear.“Talk to me.” “Okay, so this morning I went for my doctor's appointment, and I got really thirsty after…”“Okay?” I grip the staircase banister and take the stairs two at a time. “I sent Cara t
NINA’S POV I forgot what it felt like to be looked at by Cassian Cross like I was the only sin he had ever wanted to commit.But it’s hard to deny how much he missed me, how deeply he missed us. Every thought I form gets wiped away each time he dips his tongue inside me. It’s almost like he’s trying to punish me and worship me at the same time, and god…I’m so powerless to stop him. My body breaks out in a cold sweat. My hands strain against my bonds, caught between needing my balance and aching to thread my fingers in his silky smooth hair.Cassian. My Cassian. Fuck, fuck…I’m cumming…My legs buck violently, clamping shut around his neck as a cry rips from my throat. Heat. That’s all I can feel searing in and out of me as this man continues to punish me with his tongue. My chest heaves, and something coils tight in my belly, something only Cassian has ever gotten out of me.“Baby… I’m—cumming again…” my teeth chatter, blood pooling in my head as the waves build to hurricane leve
CASSIAN’S POV The moment I snap, something inside me finally stops fighting.It doesn’t feel like surrender.It feels like the darkness I’ve spent years chaining beneath my ribs has finally found a crack wide enough to crawl through.My fingers slip from the curve of her jaw into the silk of her hair, cradling the back of her head with a reverence that borders on desperation, and before reason can drag me back—my lips find hers.God.One touch. That’s all it takes.Forty-nine hours of restraint. Months of guilt. All this time I spent pretending that I could survive without her.Gone.The world doesn’t disappear. It just ceases to matter, like the hallway behind us, the howling wind outside, Axel…none of it matters. Not even the blood on my hands and the promises I made to stay away from her. Every last one of them burns to ash beneath the quiet sound she makes against my mouth.I should stop, I know I should, but the monster I’ve been so terrified of becoming doesn’t want distance a
CASSIAN’S POV“Stop.”It comes out as a whisper, because if I speak any louder, I’ll break.Stop. The word echoes over and over in my head until it builds into a scream, but I don’t let it out. I can’t. Not when her bra is falling to the floor like the last piece of her dignity, and all I can do is stand there and try not to burst open.All these months, all this time I spent trying to protect Nina Donovan from every monster in the world, and I never realized that I’ll become one of them.“Nina…” her name burns my throat like acid, “please, put your shirt back on.”“No.” She shakes her head roughly, red flaming in her cheeks.“Please—“ “Show me where,” her body moves forward, skin glistening in the warm light, “show me where he touched me.”My breath slows with each step she takes towards me, ceasing completely when she stops two feet from where I’m standing, eyes slicing into mine like darts.Back the fuck away from her, Cross. There’s nothing for you here.I take a step back, bu
NINA'S POV Cassian never looks at me once during the flight.Not when the jet takes off, not when the stewardess asks if we want dinner…not even when I wake up with my cheek pressed against the window and realise I'd fallen asleep crying.He spoke only when he had to—to the pilot, to the flight attendant, to the driver waiting outside the airport.Never to me.By the time the tyres crunch over the gravel leading into the ranch, I've stopped feeling less like his passenger and more like luggage—like something fragile he’s transporting from one place to another... careful not to break it, careful not to touch it either.And amidst all this, my heart won't stop racing. I've held my breath, clenched my fists and torn my mind away from the steady rise and fall of Cassian's chest, but it just buffers right onto the one man whose last name now echoes in my ears like a haunting.Axel Cross.Cross. It makes no sense yet so much all at once. If only I can get the chance to—No, Nina. We're not







