Chapter 5 – The Morning After

I sat on the edge of the bed with the sheet wrapped tightly around me.

Morning light slipped through the thin curtains. My head ached and my body felt sore. The room still smelled like sex and his cologne. Everything about last night felt too real now that the alcohol was gone.

Adrian was still in the bed behind me. He hadn’t said much since the call ended. He just watched me with that calm, unreadable expression, like he was waiting to see what I would do.

I couldn’t look at him properly.

Last night felt like it belonged to someone else. The drinks. The way he touched me. The way I let him. The way I came while my husband was on the phone. And his name.

“Adrian Vale…..wait ADRIAN VALE!!”

I pressed both hands against my face and let out a shaky breath as I remembered who he was.

What the hell have I done?

I stood up slowly, still holding the bed sheet, and started searching for my clothes. My dress was on the floor near the bed. I couldn’t find my panties,maybe because Adrian ripped it off last night. I pulled the dress on with trembling hands, turning my back to him so he wouldn’t see how unsteady I was.

“Where are you going?” he asked,as he sat up.

His voice was low and steady. Not angry. Not soft either. Just controlled.

“Home,” I said without turning around. “I need to go home.”

“After what just happened?”

How can he be so calm? How can he act like nothing happened?

Meanwhile I’m over here trying not to hyperventilate because I just cheated on my husband—even though my husband was literally cheating on me with my best friend in our home and not even a hotel.

I finally turned to face him. He was sitting up against the headboard, shirtless, the sheet resting low on his hips. He looked completely at ease and calm like nothing had happened. I looked like a woman who had made the biggest mistake of her life.

“I shouldn’t have stayed,” I said. “I shouldn’t have let any of it happen.”

“But you did.”

“I was drunk. I was hurting. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“You were thinking clearly enough to come on my fingers while your husband listened.”

My face burned. I looked away.

“Don’t,” I whispered. “Please don’t say it like that.” I need to process this. Need to think. Need to figure out what the hell I’m going to do now.

He tilted his head slightly. “Why? Because it’s true?”

I grabbed my bag from the chair. My hands were still shaking.

“You don’t understand,” I said. “You’re Adrian Vale. Do you know what that means for someone like me? If anyone finds out I was with you last night… if Damien finds out it was you…”

“He already suspects something.”

“That’s not the point!” My voice rose before I could stop it. “You’re not some random man I met in a bar. You’re one of the most powerful men in this city. People will say I threw myself at you. They’ll say I used my husband’s name to get close to you. My reputation will be destroyed.”

He watched me quietly for a long moment. The silence felt heavy.

Then he asked, “Is that what you’re really afraid of? Your reputation… or the fact that you liked it?”

I stared at him. The question sat between us for some seconds.

“I need to leave,” I said again, quieter this time.

I walked toward the door. Before I could open it fully, I heard him get out of bed. A few seconds later his hand pressed flat against the door beside my head, stopping me.

He stood close behind me. I could feel the heat of his body even though he wasn’t touching me.

“Running won’t change what happened,” he said quietly.

“I know that.”

“Then stop acting like last night meant nothing.”

I closed my eyes. “It has to mean nothing. I can’t afford for it to mean anything else.”

He was quiet for a few seconds. Then his voice dropped lower.

“We didn’t use protection.”

The words hit me like ice water then my heart dropped.

I had been so lost in the moment, so desperate to feel wanted, that the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. My stomach twisted hard. I felt suddenly cold.

“I… I need to go,” I repeated, but my voice had lost its strength.

Adrian slowly removed his hand from the door. He didn’t try to stop me this time.

I opened it and stepped out into the hallway without looking back. I didn’t trust myself to look at him again.

The morning air outside felt too warm and too nice. I walked quickly down the street until I found a cab. I gave the driver the address to the Blackwood mansion and sat in the back seat with my arms wrapped around myself.

The whole ride, my mind kept replaying everything.

His mouth on me.

The way he made me come while Damien was listening.

The way he said my name.

The way he calmly reminded me we used no protection.

By the time the cab stopped at the gate, my hands were cold and my throat felt tight.

I paid the driver and walked up the long driveway. The house looked the same as always,perfect, expensive, and empty of any real warmth. I stood in front of the door for a few seconds longer than necessary before opening it.

I stepped inside.

The living room was quiet.

Then I heard footsteps from the stairs.

Damien came down slowly. He was fully dressed, like he had been awake for hours. His face was tight with anger, but there was something else underneath it, suspicion, and a cold kind of control.

He stopped when he saw me.

For a long moment neither of us spoke.

I could still feel Adrian’s touch on my skin. I could still hear his voice in my head. I could still feel the fear sitting heavy in my chest.

Damien’s eyes moved over me, taking in my wrinkled dress, my messy hair, the way I couldn’t quite meet his gaze.

Then he spoke, voice low and cold.

“You have a lot of explaining to do.”

I stood there in the entrance hall, bag still in my hand, and realized that the night with Adrian Vale was not something I could just leave behind.

It had already followed me home.