LOGIN~Elena’s POV~
I’m out of my seat before he finishes roll call or before he even gets to my name. My bag gets stuck on the chair and when I pull it, papers spill like startled birds. I don’t care. I need to get out of this room, away from those dark eyes that have seen every inch of me. My heart is beating fast while I move to the door. “Miss Vega.” His voice stops me at the door, smooth, controlled. Not the same voice that moaned into my skin or the breath that shook when he was between my thighs. I freeze at the door but don’t turn. “I need to drop this class.” His answer is measured, cool-professor-like. “Office hours are posted on the syllabus. We can discuss schedule conflicts then.” It’s not a suggestion and we both know it. The next two hours are torture. I sit through Thermodynamics seeing nothing but a blurry whiteboard. All I can picture is his mouth at my neck, his hands gripping my hips, his body-God. I press my knees together under the desk, a warm feeling spreads in my stomach. What is wrong with me? Every time I blink, I see the hotel room. The dim lights. His face when he said my name…my first name, right before I came. If anyone finds out, I’m so screwed. By the time I reach his office, I’ve thought through every excuse I could possibly give. Each one sounds stupid, childish or like I’m admitting everything out loud. I knock once. “Come in.” His voice again, controlled, neutral. I push the door open. He sits behind his desk with reading glasses sitting low on his nose. He looks nothing like the man who pinned me against a hotel wall with a hunger that felt like fire. Now he looks… put together, calm. Like none of this touches him. This version wears an iron shirt and academic authority like armor. I close the door quietly. “I’m dropping your class.” He doesn’t even look up at first. “Sit down, Elena.” “You know my name now.” My name sounds different in his mouth now. Not soft like that night, it now sharper, cleaner. Like he’s wiping something away with each syllable. “I looked at the roster after you ran out of my classroom.” He removes his glasses and sets them aside like they’re fragile. He nods toward the empty chair. “Sit.” I stay standing. I need the distance. Even if distance feels impossible. “This is inappropriate. You’re my professor. What happened was a mistake…” “Agreed.” His interruption was quick and cold. He stands, moves around the desk. His steps are steady, quiet, controlled. Too controlled. Like if he shows even a little softness, something will break open between us. He stops a little too close. “It was a mistake. It won’t happen again. You’ll stay in my class, complete the coursework, and we’ll both pretend Friday night didn’t exist.” “That’s it? That’s your solution?” Now he moves closer, too close now. I can smell his cologne. “Do you have a better one?” he asks, with a low voice. “Should I report myself, lose my job or maybe you want me to give you special treatment so no one suspects why you’re suddenly getting perfect grades?” “I’m not asking for…” “I know what you’re asking for.” His voice softens. “You want out because you’re scared. Because when you look at me, you remember how you tasted on my tongue.” I feel hot even with the air conditioner. I feel it everywhere, my neck, stomach, between my legs. “Don’t...” “Don’t what? I shouldn’t acknowledge that I know exactly how you sound when you come, or remind you that your nails were in my back while you did?” He’s inches away now, his chest rises and falls faster now, he’s fighting something, the same thing I am. “We’re adults, Elena and we fucked, it was good but it’s over now.” My voice shakes. “Then why are you standing so close?” He stops moving completely. I’m not.” “You are.” I don’t step back. I refuse to back away. “And if it’s over, why do you look like you want to bend me over your desk?” The space between us snaps like a wire pulled too tight. His hand is on my hip before I can breathe. His grip is firm, dragging me forward until my body hits his. He’s hard, everywhere. “Because I do,” he says against my mouth. “I’ve been hard since you walked into my classroom. I spent two hours lecturing about Caravaggio while imagining ripping that little sweater off you.” My heart beats so loudly I’m sure he can hear it. I should tell him to stop, pull away, my brain screams it. Instead, I grab his shirt and kiss him. Everything erupts, his mouth devours mine, he lifts me to his desk not bothered by the scattered papers. His hand slides under my skirt, fingers finding wetness through my underwear. With the same certainty they had that night, like he remembers every part of me. “Fuck,” he breathes against my mouth. “You’re soaked.” “I hate you.” “Good.” His fingers push aside the thin fabric, sliding into me. “Hate me while I make you come again.” I bite down on his shoulder to reduce the sound of my moan. His thumb rubs my clit, circling with devastating motions. The room blurs. My nails dig into his shoulders. The pressure builds fast, almost frightening. His thumb moves slow, cruelly precise. I try to push his hand away, but my body betrays me. The same hands that sketch renaissance angels are taking me apart in his university office. I’m close, too close. I grab his wrist. “Stop. We can’t…” “We are.” He adds another finger, curling them perfectly. “Come for me, Elena.” The climax hits hard, fast, shaking through every limb. I gasp into his shoulder, trembling. When I can breathe again, he’s watching me with something dark and look in his eyes. He brings his fingers to his mouth, tasting it. “We’re done here,” I manage to get off the desk. My legs barely strong enough to hold me standing. “This never happens again.” His expression changes suddenly. “Agreed.” I’m fixing my skirt when the door handle turns. We both freeze. “Professor Sandoval?” A male voice. Familiar, very familiar. David pushes the door open, finding me and Mateo too close, the air thick with what we just did. He looks surprised. “Elena? What are you doing here?“ My heart skipped.The video continues. It shows my father explaining that Marina is dangerous, that having a defense plan isn’t the same as plotting murder.“Isabella edited it,” I breathe. “She cut out the context.”“She manipulated the footage to make it look like premeditated murder when it was actually your father preparing your mother for possible self-defense.” Ana puts her phone away. “I have the full video. The metadata proving when it was recorded and when it was edited. Everything we need to prove Isabella fabricated evidence.”“So my mother is safe.”“If we release this before the wedding, yes. Isabella’s leverage disappears.”I look at Patricia. “Then why haven’t you released it already?”“Because we need Mateo’s cooperation. And he won’t break the engagement unless he knows you’re here. Unless he knows you still want him.” Patricia meets my eyes. “He thinks you moved on, that you chose MIT over him. He’s going through with the wedding because he believes there’s nothing left to fight for.”
Richard’s apartment is nice. Modern and impersonal.We barely make it through the door before he’s kissing me. It’s fine. Technically competent. Completely empty.I kiss him back anyway. Try to lose myself in someone who isn’t Mateo.His hands are under my shirt when my phone rings.I ignore it.It rings again. And again.“You should get that,” Richard says.I check the screen. Patricia.“I need to take this.” I step into his hallway. “What?”“Elena. Where are you?”“Boston. Why?”“You need to see this. I’m sending a link.”My phone buzzes. Article link from The Guardian.Headline: *SANDOVAL HEIR’S SECRET: FIANCÉE UNAWARE OF COERCED ENGAGEMENT*I scan the article. Someone leaked everything. The medical incompetence angle, Isabella’s threats, the coerced contracts, everything.“Who gave them this?” I ask.“I don’t know, but it was published twenty minutes ago and it’s everywhere. Twitter. Reddit. Every major news outlet is picking it up.”“What does this mean for Mateo?”“It means the
I destroyed my MIT lab on day three.Not intentionally. I’m running a quantum resonance test, miscalculate the electromagnetic interference, and the entire array overloads. Sparks. Smoke. Alarms screaming.My advisor, Dr. Chen, finds me in the wreckage. “Miss Vega. My office. Now.”I follow her through the physics building, still smelling like burnt circuits.She closes her office door. “You’ve been here two weeks. In that time, you’ve produced brilliant preliminary work and nearly burned down a fifty-million-dollar lab. What’s going on?”“Personal issues. They won’t interfere again…”“They’re interfering now.” She sits. “I recruited you because your research is exceptional. But I need your head in the game. Whatever is happening in your personal life, fix it or compartmentalize it. You have one week to prove you can handle this program.”One week. Mateo’s wedding is in four days.“I understand.”Back at the apartment Sofia found us, small, expensive, walking distance from campus—I tr
I’m at gate B17 when I see his face on the departure lounge television.Mateo. In a suit I’ve never seen. Standing beside a woman who’s all polish and poise and everything I’m not.The chyron reads: *SANDOVAL HEIR ANNOUNCES ENGAGEMENT TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS HEIRESS*Sofia grabs my arm. “Don’t look. It’s probably old news—”“Three days ago.” The timestamp on the screen. Three days after he left the hospital. Four days after he held me in his bed and promised we’d figure this out together.The reporter’s voice carries across the gate area: “In a surprise announcement, Mateo Sandoval, newly appointed CEO of Sandoval Holdings, has confirmed his engagement to Victoria Ruiz, daughter of telecommunications magnate—”I turn away. Can’t watch.“Boarding for flight BA213 to Boston Logan will begin in ten minutes.”My phone buzzes. Text from my mother: *Did you see the news? Good. Now you can move on properly.*Another buzz. Carmen: *I’m sorry. Isabella works fast.*I silence my phone. Board the
I open my laptop. Pull up the MIT acceptance form. Cursor hovering over submit.Sofia appears with food. “Eat first. Then decide.”“I’ve already decided.”“Then eat to celebrate. Or eat to grieve. But eat.”I eat mechanically while Sofia packs my books. My research. My life into boxes.At 11:30 PM, I hit submit on the MIT form.Confirmation email arrives instantly. *Welcome to MIT. We look forward to your arrival Monday, January 6th.*Three weeks. I have three weeks to pack up four years in Barcelona. Say goodbye to everything.“Done?” Sofia asks.“Done.”“Good. Now you can actually rest.”But I can’t rest. Can’t sleep. I lie awake thinking about Mateo in his hospital bed. About my father in his grave. About the person I was four months ago who thought she had everything figured out.At 2 AM, my phone buzzes.Text from Mateo: *I lied.*I stare at the screen.Another text: *I don’t want this to be over.*My heart pounds.Another: *I know you accepted MIT. Isabella told me. And I know y
I spend seventy-two hours at Mateo’s bedside while he stays comatose.Sofia brings me changes of clothes. My mother calls twice, says nothing useful both times. Isabella sends flowers with a card: *Fighting for him in every way I can.*The MIT offer ticks down. Forty-eight hours becomes twenty-four. Becomes twelve.“You need to decide,” Sofia says on the third morning. “The deadline is tonight.”“I can’t decide until he wakes up.”“What if he doesn’t wake up before midnight?”“Then I decide without him.”“And if he wakes up but doesn’t remember you?”I don’t answer because I don’t know.The doctor reduces his sedation at noon. Says he should wake within hours if he’s going to wake at all.I hold his hand and wait.At 3 PM, his fingers twitch.At 4 PM, his eyes flutter.At 4:37 PM, they open.“Mateo.” I’m leaning over him instantly. “Can you hear me?”His eyes track to my face. Confused. Searching.“Do you know who I am?” The question costs me everything.He blinks slowly. His mouth mo
~Elena’s POV~The woman’s voice outside the studio door is sharp, cultured, impatient. “Mateo, I know you are in there. Open up before I call building security.”Mateo goes rigid beside me. “Fuck. It’s Isabella.”“Your sister?”“My sister.” He is already wearing his pants. “Get dressed. Now.”I’m s
~Elena’s POV~“What photos?” Mateo grabs my phone, reads David’s message again. “Rebecca deleted everything…”“She must have sent copies to David first.” I’m already pulling on clothes, mind racing. “Or he took his own. Fuck. We need to get to Morrison before she sees them.”“It’s too late. If he s
~Elena’s POV~Security escorts Mateo through the Gothic Quarter campus at 2 AM like he’s a criminal.I watch from the parking lot shadows as they disappear into the administration building. He didn’t look back, he told me to go home before they loaded him into their vehicle. Like I’m capable of g
~Elena’s POV~I’m out of Mateo’s apartment before he can stop me, phone gripped tight in my hand, Rebecca’s blackmail photos burning in my mind.“Elena, wait…” He’s behind me, grabbing keys, following me down the stairs.“I’m handling this.”“By doing what? Confronting her at two in the morning?”“







