LOGINELARA
"—you."
I should pull away and slap his hand off me, and I should remind him that this is insane.
But I don't.
Because, God help me, some part of me needed to be kissed into oblivion.
"You belong to me now, Elara. Like I said, I am not done with you."
"I don't belong to you," I whisper, but even I can hear how weak it sounds.
"Don't you?" His grip tightens on my jaw just enough to make his point. "You came to me, Aria. You demanded I take your virginity. You spent three days in my bed, letting me do whatever I wanted to your body. You didn't even bother to ask my name."
"I didn't know you were—"
ELARA After Sophia leaves the room, the silence feels heavier than before. Damien is still holding me, his arms is locked around my waist, and his chin resting on the top of my head like he’s afraid I’ll vanish if he lets go. I can feel the tension in every of his muscle, and the way his heart hammers against my ear. Sophia pauses in the doorway, turns back. “Are we insane?” she asks quietly. “Trying to trap someone who’s been three steps ahead this whole time?” “Probably.” I pull away from Damien just enough to meet her eyes. “But we’re also out of options. And I’m tired of being afraid.” “Me too.” She crosses the room in two strides and wraps her arms around me. “I just want this to be over, to be able to live without looking over my shoulder. I just want dad to finally be gone for good.” “He will be.” I squeeze her tight. “Soon. One way or another, this ends soon.” She nods against my shoulder, then pulls back, wiping her eyes quickly. “I’ll get coffee. We’re going to need it
DAMIANThe interrogation room footage is grainy, but the fear on James O'Reilly's face is razor-sharp. Hayes’s team didn’t need long. All they needed was six hours of strategic pressure, and whispered promise of handing him over to people who don’t bother with due process. He cracked like cheap glass.Richard approached him two weeks ago in Los Angeles. He knew his apartment number, his favorite bar, the exact day he’d been transferred out of New York because of me. He had convinced him with a million in cash. Later he sent him a burner phones for their communication, and hasn't met Richard face-to-face. Therefore there is no real trail to follow.“He’s a ghost,” Hayes says, pausing the video on James’s tear-streaked confession. “James was useful only until he wasn’t. Richard gave him nothing that leads anywhere.”I lean back in the leather chair. “Then he’s done his job. Let the NYPD have him. Attempted murder, conspiracy, bribery. Twenty-five years, minimum. Make sure he understands
DAMIAN The bedroom smells like her—salt, sex, and that faint vanilla from her skin that drives me fucking insane. She’s lying on her stomach across the rumpled sheets, completely bare, the late-afternoon sun striping her back in gold. Her ass is still faintly pink from my hand earlier, the marks I left like a signature. She’s reading on her tablet again, legs lazily swinging, oblivious to how dangerous she looks right now. Every small shift makes her curves move in ways that have my cock thickening behind the sweatpants I threw on after the shower. I’ve been standing in the doorway watching her for minutes. Letting the hunger build. Letting it burn slow. She hasn’t noticed me yet. Good. I want her off-balance. Want her dripping before I even lay a finger on her. I cross the room silently and climb up the mattress and it dips under my knee. Her head snaps around, her eyes wide with surprise before turning dark with hunger and want. “Damien—” I don’t give her time to finish.
ELARADawn is barely breaking, the sky outside the bedroom windows is like a bruised lavender. Damien is still asleep beside me, sprawled on his back, with one arm thrown over his head, his chest rising and falling in the deep, even rhythm of someone who finally trusts the night not to take anything else away.I watch him for a long moment, looking at the sharp line of his jaw, the faint shadow of stubble, the way the sheet has slipped low enough to reveal the cut of his hips and the thick outline of him already half-hard even in sleep.Heat pools low in my belly.I want to taste him. I want to wake him with pleasure so sharp it borders on pain. I want to remind us both that we still belong to each other.Carefully, I slide down the mattress, pulling the sheet lower as I go. He doesn’t stir.I settle between his spread thighs, my palms smoothing up the hard muscle of his legs, feeling the warmth of his skin, and the faint tremor when my breath ghosts over him.He’s beautiful like this
ELARAThe bedroom door closes with a soft, decisive click, sealing out the world out...the ocean, the guards, the echoes of gunshots that still ring in my ears like distant thunder.My hands are still trembling. Though not violently, but enough that I can feel the fine vibration in my fingertips. The adrenaline rush has crashed, leaving behind a raw, jittery emptiness that aches in my chest, in my bones, and between my thighs.James is alive and has been taken away in an ambulance under heavy guard, but the image of him bleeding out on my office carpet is burned behind my eyelids. Friendly James, harmless James has turned to betrayer James.I need to distract my thoughts with something else. Anything else but this.Damien stands by the door, watching me. His shirt untucked, his sleeves rolled, his jaw tight, eyes dark with everything he’s holding back, guilt, rage, terror for me. He’s beautiful like this, dangerous, and mine.I cross the room slowly and deliberately.When I reach him,
ELARA "James, what are you doing in this building?" Reeves's voice is hard."I came back to get some files I left in my old office. The security let me up." His eyes are wide, scared. "Who are you? Why are you pointing a gun at me?"Reeves doesn't lower her weapon. "Echo Two, verify James O'Reilly. He should be in Los Angeles. Why is he in the building?"A pause. Then Hayes's voice. "No record of O'REILLY having building access today. He shouldn't be here. Treat as hostile."James's expression changes. Shifts from scared to something else...cold and calculated."You figured it out," he says calmly. "Faster than I expected."My stomach drops. "James—"He moves fast, pulling a gun from his jacket. But Reeves is faster.She fires twice. vey professional and efficient.James goes down, his weapon clattering from his hand.I'm frozen, my ears ringing from the gunshots, staring at James Chen bleeding on my office floor."Target down," Reeves says into her comms, already moving to secure hi







