Chapter 6

Luca does not move away.

He stays close enough that I can feel the heat of him, close enough that the new mission burns across my vision like a second pulse.

[Make him lose control before the night ends.]

The words sit heavy in my head. Losing control is the last thing I ever saw this man do. In the first life he could watch me bleed on the floor and still keep his voice even. Now he is looking at me like he has already started calculating how far I am willing to go.

My throat feels tight. I force myself to speak before the silence becomes another kind of trap.

“Why did you let her leave like that?”

Luca’s eyes stay on mine. “Because you stopped her. And I wanted to see what you would do next.”

The honesty in it is worse than a lie. He is not protecting me. He is studying me. The same way he used to study problems that needed solving.

I shift back on the bed, trying to put a little space between us. His hand leaves my neck only to catch my wrist again, keeping me from going far.

“You’re still shaking,” he says.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not.” His thumb presses over my pulse again, slow and deliberate. “Your heart is racing. Your breathing is too shallow. And you keep looking at me like you’re waiting for the moment I turn cruel.”

I hate how accurately he reads it. I hate that the system is rewarding every second of contact with another soft rush of heat that makes it harder to think clearly.

“Maybe I am,” I answer.

Something dark flickers in his expression. Not anger. Interest.

“Good,” he says. “Fear makes people honest. And I am very interested in the honest version of you.”

He uses the grip on my wrist to pull me forward until I am forced to rise onto my knees on the bed to keep my balance. The wedding dress shifts with the movement. His other hand settles at my waist, steady and possessive, holding me in place.

The system reacts at once.

[Escalation registered.]
[Reward issued: 400 points.]
[Host is within critical range.]
[Suggestion: Use proximity. Push further.]

I can feel the next punishment waiting under my skin if I refuse. The knowledge makes my stomach twist. I came back to take control, not to be dragged deeper into whatever this is becoming.

“Luca.” My voice comes out lower than I want. “What are you doing?”

“Testing a theory.” He leans in until his mouth is near my ear again. “The woman I married would never have grabbed another woman in front of me. She would never have spoken back. She would never have looked at me like she wanted to survive me instead of please me.”

His breath brushes my skin.

“So I am going to keep pushing until I find out which version of you is real.”

My free hand comes up between us, pressing against his chest. Not hard enough to shove him away. Hard enough to create a barrier. The system still counts it as contact and feeds me another wave of heat in response.

“And if I don’t want to be tested?” I ask.

Luca pulls back just enough to meet my eyes. The look on his face is calm, focused, and completely without mercy.

“Then you should not have touched me first.”

The words land like a quiet verdict.

He releases my wrist only to slide his hand up my arm and over my shoulder until his fingers rest against the side of my throat again. The hold is light. It still feels like a claim.

“You wanted to be seen tonight,” he says. “Now you are. The question is whether you can handle what happens when I stop treating you like something I can ignore.”

The system flashes a sharper warning.

[Target’s control is destabilizing.]
[Continue. Do not retreat.]
[Punishment threshold rising.]

My pulse beats hard against his fingers. Fear and the system’s heat twist together until I can barely separate them. I know what the mission wants. I know what the old version of me would do. I know that if I give in completely I might lose the only advantage I came back with.

Luca’s voice drops even lower.

“Choose, Elena.”

His thumb strokes once over my throat.

“Push me. Or go back to being quiet. But do it now.”

The room feels too small. The mission timer feels too close. And for the first time since I woke up in this bed I understand that the real danger is not only the system or the woman who already left the room.

It is the fact that part of me wants to find out what happens if I push.