MasukShare
Chapter 9 – The Non-stage Stage
Terakhir Diperbarui:
2025-04-16 21:36:26
Bab terkait
Velvet Chains Chapter 10 – Silk-Tethered
The club was quiet tonight.The music was muted, a soft beat in the shadows, a throb like the beat of an unseen heart below the surface of the building.Sera was in front of the mirror in the dancer's lounge, standing there staring at her reflection and not seeing it.Her fingertips caressed the outline of her collarbone.She'd never stopped thinking of last night. Of the way he'd *gazed* at her.About how she'd danced in clothes and somehow still made him hard.She hated the way it clung to her like a vice to sin—this said unspoken hunger but felt just as real.And she hated more the way that when she came out to the main floor, *he was already there waiting*.Valerio.The devil with eyes that promised everything she feared to want.He was in the same VIP room—again bought just for her. He wasn't appearing impatient. Didn't demand. Rather, he was reclining in his chair, arms on the armrests, that lazy, wicked smile playing at the edge of his mouth.When she entered the room, he didn'
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-16Velvet Chains Chapter 11 – Owned and Bought
Sera couldn't sleep that night.She paced the floorboards of her little apartment, aching feet still trembling from lingering adrenaline spawned from the conflict with Valerio.Each time she blinked, she could nearly feel the ghost of his phantasm on her skin. Hear the sinister oaths he made in shadows. No touch, no kiss… but he had left her body taut and throbbing, as though he *had* touched her.It was wrong. *He* was wrong.And she was wrong for craving it.She was lucky to get a few fitful hours' sleep before pulling herself back to the club the following evening, praying that somehow, in some way, Valerio had lost interest and moved on.But of course he hadn't.Sera slipped out the side entrance, dodging between the makeup women and the bouncers, making for the dressing rooms—only to be intercepted by Franco, the club owner. He was standing stiffly next to her locker, arms folded over his wide chest, a thin layer of sweat slicking his forehead despite the chilly air. "Sera,"
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-17Velvet Chains Chapter 12 – The Devil's Chains
The next morning, Sera woke to the rude boom of someone knocking on her door.She rolled over, struggling up from the worn mattress. Her whole body ached, each muscle taut with tension, with restless tossing and turning. Her broken nightstand's clock beeped out a bitter 7:02 AM.Way, way too early for anything to be good.Sera jerked the door open, ready to bark at whoever it was—And froze instantly.Two men in black suits stood in the hall. Both linebacker-huge, both wearing shades even in the grimy, dim lighting of her crummy apartment complex.Behind them was a third man. Younger, smoother. No shades. But his stance radiated *deadly* too.He gave her a crooked grin that didn't reach his hard brown eyes."Sera Vale?" he asked, voice as smooth as a car salesperson but with the unmistakable trace of a man who could snap a neck without wincing.She gulped hard."Who are you?" she croaked, keeping the door shut tighter.The younger guy stuck his hands innocently into his pockets. "N
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-17Velvet Chains Chapter 13 — The Price of Disobedience
Sera waited until after midnight.The penthouse was as silent as if she was the only one in it. The only sounds the distant hum of the city far below and the soft lapping of the curtains from the gentle air of the vent.Matteo had stood watch by the door before, but she'd seen through the peephole, waiting. Listening. At dinner, he'd disappeared—one way or another he'd assumed she was clever enough to know she couldn't get away. They hardly knew Sera Vale at all. With her heart racing, she jammed a few necessities into the little leather bag — ID, what little cash she had, her brother's hospital information.She wore her soft slippers into the house to mute her steps across the marble floor. All the shadows breathed. All the creaks of the wood made her nerves scream.The service elevator.She remembered Matteo having pointed it out in the first place, laughing. "Even rats have to have a way out, right?"It was hidden behind the big kitchen — probably where deliveries came and went.
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-17Velvet Chains Chapter 14 — Cracks in the Armor
Sera didn't say a word to him the next day.Not when Matteo delivered her breakfast — a lavish spread of fruit, pastries, coffee — on Valerio's orders. Not when she opened the front door that evening and heard the unmistakable thud of Valerio's heavy footsteps coming into the penthouse. Not even when he stood in the living room, eyes burning into her back where she was curled up on the giant velvet couch, lost in a book she wasn't even reading.All she had left to fight with was silence.She refused to look up. Refused to even glance at him.Valerio stood there for a moment.Then, silently, he vanished into the depths of the penthouse.Sera shook with her breath once he was gone.But her heart still pounded in her chest. She could sense every gasp he took when he was near, the way the air around him became dense. It was maddening. infuriating.She loathed him. She loathed the way he could make her body betray her. She loathed the way part of her—the weakest, darkest part—ached
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-18Velvet Chains Chapter 15 — Blood and Velvet
Sera thought she knew the shadows that lurked in Valerio Romano.She was wrong.It happened one evening, late.She had walked the perimeter of the penthouse, tense and restless, when she heard the noises of voices from the staircase — low, rough, insistent. Hairs on the back of her neck stood on end immediately.Sera knew she shouldn't be outside. Knew no good could ever come from listening in on the Devil.But her curiosity, her stubbornness, overpowered her.She crept towards the stairwell door, ear pressed against cold metal.She only caught fragments at first.".told you." ".disrespect."".deal was clear."".you *lied,* you little shit."And then a sickening *thud*, the unmistakable sound of flesh meeting flesh.Sera's stomach twisted.She rested her hand on the door, heart thumping painfully against her ribs.Another sound — a low, throaty groan of pain.And then—"You don't steal from me," Valerio's voice stated, icy and lethal."You don't lie to me."There was a gurgling, we
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-18Velvet Chains Chapter 16 — The Devil's Courtship
Two days passed without Sera leaving her suite after witnessing the murder she saw Valerio perpetrate.She stayed huddled on the oversized velvet sofa, wrapped in a blanket, jolting at every knock, every creak of footsteps outside the hall.Her mind went round and round with it over and over — the calculating competence, the factual brutality.She couldn't *want* a person like that.She *couldn't*.And yet…She slept with him at night.Of silk and blood.Of pinning hands and bruising mouths, a voice speaking foul, awful promises on the skin.She woke gasping, dripping with sweat, legs clenched around an ache she was not about to name anything.*It's fear,* she lied to herself.*Nothing else.*She was lying though.And despised herself for it.---On the third day, gifts arrived.The first was a simple, elegant box set on the coffee table when she didn't notice.Inside, supported by black velvet, was a thin, delicate anklet of gold.Delicate. Thin.And a tiny ruby pendant shaped like
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-21Velvet Chains Chapter 17 — A Cage Without Chains
Sera thought that after she'd strapped on the anklet around her ankle — after she'd held her tongue and *given in* silently — things would calm down.They did not.Valerio didn't storm into her suite.He didn't touch her.He didn't even speak to her the following day.But the world outside her *altered*.In a quiet. Unseen. Complete manner.It started with what she wore.The closet that used to be filled with her plain jeans and frayed sweaters was now packed with silk, lace, leather.Gowns so sheer they were almost invisible.Lingerie that seemed to promise defeat.Shoes with heels so high they made her legs tremble.Sera wouldn't wear any of it initially.She stormed back into her old jeans and sweatshirt, refusing to admit the boxes that piled up day by day.Pretending she wasn't interested in the fine material, the brutal cut of the clothing.But Valerio was patient.Patient, and cruel.When she entered the hallway to find something to eat, she noticed a new notice on the door.**
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-21
Bab terbaru
Velvet Chains Chapter 75 - Uncovering Chapel Secrets
The cold of the Verona air followed them as they made their way to the chapel that Dario had told them about. It was at the far end of the estate, flanked by cypress trees that groaned in the wind, their shadows extending long and foreboding in the moonlight. The building was old, its stones weathered with centuries of secrets and sin.Valerio held Sera's hand tightly, the other wrapped around the butt of his gun. Even with Dario guiding them, trust did not come easily."How far down does it go?" Valerio ordered, staring at the chapel's weathered interior."Under the altar," Dario whispered, his eyes darting up to the worn crucifix that hung above. "There's a trapdoor, hidden by the marble. My father and I would use it when we had to. store things."Sera swallowed, her nerves tightening. The air was colder in here, unnaturally so. She felt it in her bones, in the way her skin prickled."You’re sure no one else knows about this?" she asked.Dario hesitated. "Only Lucrezia. But she beli
Velvet Chains Chapter 74 - The Masked Dance
The gala vibrated with secrets and shadows, but none thicker than that surrounding Sera as she navigated the crowd. She wasn't herself tonight. She was Celeste D'Amour, an enigmatic heiress from the French Riviera with a taste for danger and champagne. It was a name devised by Dario, corroborated by a fleshed-out identity trail and whispered associations with power.Sera had never been so naked, and yet so masked. And that paradox vibrated beneath her skin.Valerio's voice was a soft whisper in her ear, grounding. "She's watching you. Play it slow."Sera took a sip from her glass, letting her eyes drift over the room briefly, bored, uninterested. But she felt it—Lucrezia's eyes slicing through the crowd like blades. Waiting. Hunting."She's moving," Dario murmured over comms. "Two guards with her. Coming up on your left."Sera turned, just a bit. Enough to appear interested, not set up.Lucrezia walked like winter—deadly, gracious. Her voice, when it came, was a dagger in silk."I don
Velvet Chains Chapter 73 - Valerio & Sera
The chapel just beyond Dario's grounds stood like a monument to having been forgotten by time—ivy covering the stone walls, broken stained glass windows, their former brightly colored hues now faded with age. It was lovely, haunting. A cemetery of secrets.Sera stood beside Valerio, flashlight in hand. The marble floors echoed beneath their steps as they walked toward the altar. The air inside was cold, still, too quiet—as if the walls themselves were holding their breath."You’re sure the evidence is here?" she asked.Valerio nodded. "Dario said under the altar. There's a hiding place beneath the ancient offering table. My mother used to say her morning prayers here. If she knew what was rotting beneath her feet."He did not go on. Instead, he knelt and pressed a row of intricately carved angel wings on the altar. There was a quiet click. The marble swung back with a creak, and a thin stairway descending into darkness was revealed.Sera looked down. "Of course there's a creepy crypt.
Velvet Chains Chapter 72 - Valerio & Sera
The aftermath of the attack on the safehouse left a thick tension hanging in the air, heavier than the smoke and blood splatters they'd all but escaped. It was early dawn, but Valerio's world had been rewritten. The game had new rules.He stood on the edge of a cliff, beyond the forest clearing several miles from the desecrated safehouse, the wind cutting through his coat and nibbling at him. Sera followed him, silent. The night was silent too, too silent. Out in the distance, there were owls hooting into the night, peacefully unaware of the war raging in silence beneath their branches."We have to go," she whispered.Valerio changed, his face carved from stone. "Where?""To whoever's next on your list."She kept pace with him, slipping her hand into his. He glanced down at the manner in which her fingers curled around his—tight, unyielding."This doesn't stop until we find the one pulling the strings," she continued. "Until you're free."Valerio's face twisted. "Then we start with Da
Velvet Chains Chapter 71 - Valerio & Sera
The shoot-out's aftermath hung over the estate, such as the thick smoke of a fire smothered for too long. Morning light filtered through broken windows, reflected off blood-slicked floors and bullet holes. There was quiet where chaos had erupted mere hours before.Sera stood in the hallway outside the old library, arms wrapped around herself, a blanket draped over her shoulders. Her skin still trembled from adrenaline, her mind a whirlwind of images—Valerio with blood on his knuckles, the mole’s lifeless eyes, the shouts, the gunfire.But more than anything, she remembered Valerio’s arms around her afterward, his voice rough as he murmured, “You’re safe now. I’ve got you.”She hadn't given up since.In the library, Valerio lay on the long, blackened table, his gaze down on a crumpled map and list of names. His shoulders tensed, jaw clenched. What was to have been a clever ambush had been successful—but at a cost. One of his men had been injured, and the mole they'd been following had
Velvet Chains Chapter 70 - Valerio & Sera
The air was filled with gunpowder and blood.Smoke still coiled in relaxed clouds over the ruins along the southern ridge. Forest remained still, save the fading roar of engines. There was a sea of dead bodies covering the frost-covered ground. Valerio was pacing at the edge of the field, coat torn, bruised knuckles, and a deep slash running across the left arm. Ambushers were professionals but had not been expecting him.He'd taken care of that.Sera crept out from behind a fallen tree trunk, chest heaving, face streaked with grime and anger. Her gaze landed on Valerio straight away, relief crossing her features even as her jaw tightened."Are you injured?"He spun around, voice low. "I'm fine. You?"She nodded, sweeping hair from her face. "Bruised. Not broken."Valerio walked toward her, cupping her cheek in his good hand. His thumb wiped a smudge of blood from the jawline. "I said to stay behind the line.""And I said I don't take orders for granted." Her voice shook with adrenali
Velvet Chains Chapter 69 - Valerio & Sera
The guns' noise had long since faded, leaving behind only the crackling of the blaze in the impromptu hideout Valerio's men had occupied. Darkness descended on the forest hideout, thick with silence and secrets. Valerio was at the window, his gaze trained on the trees as if trying to break through the shroud of treachery that had surrounded his organization.Sera slumped on the arm of the leather couch, covered in one of Valerio's warm jackets, dripping wet hair curving around her face in tender strands. Her mind spun from the chaos of everything they had just been through. The fight at the compound. The deception that ran deeper than they had expected. The shadow of what still remained out there, hanging in wait."I don't know whom to trust anymore," Valerio burst out, his voice low, husky. "Every time I think I've located the leak, someone else bleeds.""You trust me," Sera said softly.His head rotated toward her slowly, eyes obscured in the dark. "You're the only one I trust. That
Velvet Chains Chapter 68 - Valerio & Sera
Rifle fire cracked through the underbrush like a fury of vengeance, echoing across the destroyed manor. Sera winced, racing heart still within her, as Valerio shielded her body with his. His arms wrapped around her, driving her behind a blackened pillar as rounds spat stone and ash into the air."Down!" he bellowed, voice booming over the chaos.His men returned fire, moving as precisely as surgeons. The ambush hadn't surprised Valerio—it had merely reinforced what he already knew: there was a mole in his organization, selling information to the enemy.Sera clung to the icy stone, her breathing short and shallow. She could feel the shock of the gunfire through the floor, smell the bitter flavor of metal and smoke. But it wasn't fear that bound her.It was rage.Whoever had enough guts to come for Valerio—enough guts to disrupt what they were building—would regret it.Valerio whirled, dropped down beside her. His mask was streaked with dirt, eyes burning hot with fury. "You believe me?
Velvet Chains Chapter 67 - Valerio & Sera
The sun rose blood-red over the ruined estate, staining the skeletal remains of Valerio's childhood house in fire and gold. The smoke from the last battle still lingered in the air, curling like specters through the broken windows. Sera waited in the silence that followed, her pistol loose at her side, ears still ringing from the gunfire.Valerio crouched next to the body of the man who'd named his father."He's making a grab," Valerio growled, to himself more than anything else. "He waited so long to allow me to establish everything. so he could then attempt to steal it away."Sera stepped forward. "Then he's mistaken."He gazed up at her. There was pride in his eyes, but something more. Sadness. Grief. Not for the man he'd thought of as a father—but for what he'd lost because of him. His mother. His innocence. His peace."This house," Valerio said, standing slowly and surveying the wreckage, "was built on blood. It alway
