Chapter 18

Damien’s POV

She stood there naked, and for a second I thought my mind was fucking with me. Skin bare, nipples tight from the cold air or maybe from fear, thighs pressed together like they could hide what I already owned. She was a freaking goddess and her nakedness always caught my attention.

My office was a wreck. Drawers left open, papers scattered across the floor like a thief had torn through my world, and she was the only one here. The afternoon light was spilling in weak through the blinds, and for a moment the only sound in the room was her breath, shallow, uneven, desperate.

I shut the door behind me without a sound, the lock clicking like a trigger, and her shoulders flinched when she heard it.

“Interesting,” I said, my voice low, sharp, steady. “I leave you alone for a few hours, and you turn my house into a fucking playground.”

She didn’t speak. Her hands hovered close to her stomach, almost covering herself but not really, because she wanted me to look. And I did. Slowly. From her trembling shoulders down to her bare stomach, lower, tracing the line of her hips with my eyes until my cock twitched in my pants. She knew it. She felt it. That was why she stripped because she thought sex ke her body was a weapon sharp enough to stop me.

I stepped closer, my shoes crushing a paper underfoot. The sound was loud in the silence, and her eyes flicked to it like the floor might open up and swallow her.

“Looking for keys?” I asked, my voice dark and deliberate. “Or looking for a way to ruin me while my cock is supposed to do the thinking for me?”

Her lips parted, a small sound leaving her throat. I moved fast hand catching her chin, fingers digging into her jaw, forcing her eyes up. Wet. Wide. Fucking guilty.

“You think I’m like the other men you’ve played with, Aria?” I whispered, my breath brushing her cheek, the scent of her skin already crawling under mine. “You think flashing your tits and spreading those thighs will make me forget what you touched in here?”

Her breath trembled against my hand, and my cock throbbed harder with every second I stood that close. I could bend her over that desk, push my cock inside her until she cried and begged and stopped pretending but I didn’t. Not yet. That would be a reward, and she hadn’t earned shit.

“You wanted me to lose control, didn’t you?” I said. “You wanted me to walk in here and the minute I set eyes on you, I’d forget and overlook the mess you created here? forget the papers, the drawers, the fucking chaos and just use you like the toy you’re pretending to be.”

Her breath hitched, and she whispered, “I was just… I didn’t mean…”

I didn’t let her finish. My palm came up fast, not full force just enough to slap the side of her ass, the sound cracking through the room like a whip. She jolted, a gasp tearing from her throat. My hand followed, wrapping lightly around her throat. Not enough to choke. Just enough to remind her whose air she was stealing.

“Don’t fucking lie to me,” I growled against her skin. “You were looking for a way out. And when you didn’t find it, you used your body like a cheap fucking trick. That might have worked on the other monsters you’ve spread your legs for. Not me.”

Her eyes went glassy, tears hanging at the edge, but her nipples hardened again, and I saw the small betrayal in her body fear and heat, tangled like a noose.

I pushed her back until her hips hit the desk, papers crumpling under her bare skin. My hand stayed at her throat, thumb tracing the delicate pulse that jumped when I squeezed just a little harder.

“You want my cock, don’t you?” I whispered in her ear, voice low and venomous. “You want me to fuck you until you can’t walk, because you think that’s the price for your freedom.”

She shook her head, lips parting, words trembling. “I…I wasn’t trying to…”

“Shut the fuck up.” My hand slid down her chest, fingers grazing the curve of her breast, stopping just before her nipple, close enough to make her gasp, far enough to remind her who was in control. “You don’t get to rewrite what I see. I see everything.”

I leaned in closer, my cock pressing against the edge of the desk now, hard, ready, aching to split her open but I held back. That was my power. Not fucking when I wanted to, but when I decided she deserved to be used.

“I don’t fuck liars,” I said coldly. “I break them.”

I let go of her throat, stepped back, let the air hit her raw. She stayed there, hands still trying to cover herself, lips shaking, body trembling between shame and something darker she didn’t want me to see.

“Put your clothes back on,” I ordered, turning toward the mess she had made. “And clean every inch of this. You wanted to play innocent? Play maid instead.”

I picked up a page, scanned it. One of my ledgers. She had no idea what it meant but she wanted to. She wanted a door, a window, a password, a key anything to get away from me. That made me smile.

I pulled my phone out, called Christiano without looking at her.

“Talk to me”

“Mateo?” I said.

“Fled,” he answered. “He slipped through the borders “

My jaw tightened. My fingers drummed against the desk she was still leaning on, her bare ass inches away. “Find him. I don’t care if you have to turn the city upside down. Drag his ass back breathing, because I want him to talk before I carve his fucking tongue out.”

“Yes, boss.”

I ended the call, grabbed my suit jacket from the chair, and turned one last time. She was standing there with her arms wrapped around herself, bare, tears streaking her cheeks, the office still a disaster around her. Her lips trembled, but she didn’t speak. She knew better.

“You made this bed, Aria,” I said, voice quiet but laced with steel. “But I’m not the one you should be afraid of yet.”

I stepped closer, just enough for her to feel the heat off me, for her nipples to brush the edge of my jacket, for my cock to twitch again at the sight of her trying so hard to act like she wasn’t shaking.

“You want to know what I do to girls who try to play me?” I whispered, my breath hot against her ear. “I let them think they’ve won. Then I fuck their world sideways.”

Her breath shuddered. A tear slipped.

I stepped back again. “Not tonight,” I said. “Tonight you clean.”

And I walked out, my cock still hard, my hands still itching to grab her and take what she was offering, but control was my game, and tonight, she didn’t get fucked. She got reminded.