REINA'S POVIt’s finally time to satisfy my cravings.I’ve finally cracked through Mr Morelli’s armor, and I hope for my own sake, that I don’t regret it.For days on end, he avoided lingering around me like I’m infected with a contagious virus.He wheels up beside me like I might float away, like his grip is the only thing tethering me to earth.Sometimes, I catch him watching me with that haunted hunger—the kind that says he wants to ruin me, but he’s too scared he already has.He tucks the blanket around me himself. Warms my tea with the same hands that have killed men.He brushes his thumb over my wrist like he’s learning my heartbeat. Memorizing it. Owning it.But he hasn’t touched me.Not the way he used to.No hunger.No fire.Not even a kiss.And somehow, that hurts more than any wound.He said I wasn’t a nurse anymore. Not to anyone but him.Said I was his now.His only caregiver.His only cure.But how do you heal a man who lost everything that ever made him human?Still, I
REINA’S POVThere he was. Officer Rodney.Looking like an overcooked Thanksgiving turkey someone forgot in the oven.His leg was hoisted awkwardly, suspended in traction like a broken stick wrapped in gauze. His chest was bandaged. His arms too. But it was the lower half—God, the lower half—that nearly had me doubling over in laughter.Because even his dick was mummified!I mean fully wrapped. Like someone took a roll of gauze and thought, “Why stop at the thigh when we can go all the way to the shaft?”Only his face was left exposed, as if the universe wanted me to see just how pitiful he looked.And that face?Trying to twist itself into fury—but instead coming off like a constipated man on the verge of passing out from the effort.I clamped a hand over my mouth, stifling the burst of laughter that threatened to escape.“Focus, Reina,” I muttered, moving past his bed quickly before I made a scene.I headed to the next stretcher, a young officer whose arms were scorched and blistered
REINA’S POV"Shit—sorry," I muttered, rubbing the spot above my brow.“Whoa,” came the familiar voice, deep and vaguely amused. “You still hit like a freight train.”My heart dropped.My eyes snapped up.Leon.He stood there, tall and unmistakable in a black shirt that clung to his broad chest, his signature tactical boots planted like he never left the mansion's halls. His arms were folded, face half-shadowed, like time hadn’t touched him at all since the last time I saw him—since he’d flung me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and dragged me into this gilded prison.Since the last time I drove a fist into his area.He shifted awkwardly. “I—uh… I’ve been looking for a way to talk to you. Properly.”I raised a brow. “About throwing me over your shoulder like a barbarian?”He winced. “Yeah. That.” Then he cleared his throat and tried again. “I never really got to apologize for that. Not properly, at least. I was just doing my job, but it… wasn’t right. You were scared. And I s
REINA’S POVAs soon as the door shut behind me, I leaned back against it, letting the cool wood press into my spine. A smile curled slowly onto my lips.God, I can’t wait.That look he gave me before I left?It screamed one thing and one thing only: “Go inside, get naked, kneel, and wait.”And I didn’t mind doing just that.Hell, I’d light candles and tie the damn ribbon around my own neck if that’s what he wanted.But first—brunch.I skipped, literally skipped, down the hallway toward the kitchen like a woman drunk on adrenaline and lust. The halls smelled faintly of cassia bark and cedar—his scent, even soaked into the walls—and it only made the ache worse.It was early afternoon. I didn’t know how long the meeting would last, but I had a feeling those two men who dared flirt with me were going to leave with either broken jaws, cracked ribs, or both.Honestly? They brought it on themselves.As I pushed the kitchen doors open, warm light and the scent of roasted herbs wrapped around
REINA’S POVIt’s been a week.Seven days since I woke up better, stitched, and delirious in the silk-drenched tomb that is Cassian Morelli’s bedroom. Seven days since he looked at me like I was glass, and started treating me like something priceless… something his.And God help me… I liked it.No. I craved it.Every hour since then, I’ve been wrapped in his care like I’m some fragile doll he’s terrified to break again. His men and workers look at me differently now. The maids speak softer around me. Lucas, oddly, bows his head when I pass.But him? Cassian?He carries me like an egg. Like I might shatter if the wind blows too hard. He tucks the blanket around me himself. He checks the temperature of my tea. He orders my meals. Rubs his thumb over my wrist absently, like memorizing the pulse beneath my skin is part of some holy ritual.He doesn’t touch me the way he used to.Not roughly. Not hungrily. Not at all.He hasn’t kissed me since the night he found me.And somehow… that’s what
CASSIAN’S POVI don’t know why.But I never left her side when we got home.Not when the maids were cleaning her up. Not when the doctor came to examine her. And certainly not when we were alone.She lay on the silk sheets like a shattered thing—beautiful still, but broken. Her body trembled beneath the warmth of the blankets, and her fingers, pale and cold, were clamped so tightly into mine I could see the outline of her knuckles in her skin. Even in sleep, she didn’t let go.Cute.Sweet.But I don’t do any of those.Yet I let her.I let her fingers curl into mine like they belonged there.The doctor had arrived ten minutes after we pulled in—bribed, blackmailed, and dragged through every inch of hell Lucas could put him through in record time. Now, he stood at the edge of the bed, gloves bloody, face tight with concern.I clenched my jaw, the vein in my neck pulsing with every word that came out of his mouth.“She’s suffered multiple contusions along her ribcage. At least two ribs o