MasukChapter 49: What She Knows~zella pov~"I'm not sure if this is love yet," he said quietly. "But I've forgotten how to love. What I know is that I want you. I've never wanted anyone like this. Not in years."I went very still.He was waiting for me to respond, but the words wouldn't come. I didn't know what to say to that. I didn't know if that was enough. I didn't even know if I had the right to ask for more.I stood up from his lap."I have something to do in my place," I said. "I need to go."He didn't try to stop me. He just watched me leave, and I felt the weight of his gaze following me as I walked out of the penthouse and back into the apartment that he owned but I was supposed to live in.The moment I closed the door, it crashed down on me. The reality. The choice sitting in front of me like something I had to either accept or walk away from.I sat on the edge of my bed and thought about what love actually was.---With Cole, I'd been sure. I'd felt it so completely that I'd b
Chapter 48: What He Knows~ Evander POV ~I was on my laptop in the sitting room when she walked through the door.I didn't look up immediately, there were emails, correspondence, the usual demands of a life that felt increasingly irrelevant but I felt her the moment she entered. That was the thing that had been happening for weeks now: my entire nervous system registered her presence before my conscious mind caught up. After ten years of solitude, after a decade of being completely self-sufficient and untethered, I'd forgotten what it felt like to have someone matter that much.And then she'd walked into my life soaking wet on a London street, and I'd remembered everything I'd spent ten years trying to forget.I closed the laptop without finishing the email and watched her move toward me. Something had happened. Something had shifted. I could read it in the way she held herself, that wariness, that specific tension that hadn't been there this morning when I'd kissed her forehead and
Chapter 47: Questions and Confessions~zella Pov ~I woke to find him watching me.He was sitting in the chair by the window, fully dressed in a dark sweater, and the moment my eyes opened he stood. The morning light caught the grey in his hair, making him look distinguished, patient and completely in control. There was something in his expression that looked almost vulnerable, like he'd been waiting for this exact moment, like my waking mattered to him in a way that went beyond possession or claim."Morning, little trouble," he said.The endearment felt different in daylight. Gentler somehow. More real. Less like a command and more like genuine affection.I jolted up, suddenly aware of time slipping away. "Wait... what time is it?""Eight-thirty. Sunday morning."I stared at him in disbelief. "I fell asleep around noon yesterday. That's..." I did the math in my head, the numbers not adding up correctly. "That's
Chapter 46: Princess Treatment.~ Zella Pov ~He carried me to the bathroom like I weighed nothing.My legs were unsteady, my body aching in places I was becoming intimately familiar with, my mind still fuzzy from what had just happened against the wall. I should have felt self-conscious about being carried like this, naked and marked and completely exposed.Instead, I felt claimed.The bathroom door opened and I stopped breathing.He'd prepared a bath.Not just a bath, a statement. The tub was filled with water that steamed gently, and floating across the surface were flowers. Roses, mostly, in shades of deep red and blush pink. White peonies. Something delicate that I couldn't name. Candles lined the edges of the tub, their flames casting everything in soft gold light. The air smelled like jasmine and something floral and expensive, the kind of scent that came from candles that cost money.When did he prepare
Chapter 45: No More Games~ Zella Pov ~I opened the door.Evander slid in like he always belonged there, which, apparently, he did. He'd decided this flat was his space now, decided that knocking was optional, decided that boundaries I tried to draw were merely obstacles to work around.He came in with a bag and he just glared at me, not saying anything. His eyes moved across my body, taking in the nightgown, the obvious soreness in the way I was holding myself, the marks on my neck and collarbone that hadn't faded yet.His expression was unreadable.We moved to the sitting room without speaking. The silence felt thick, weighted with things unsaid and things he clearly intended to say very soon.He took things out of the bag.Hangover soup in a container. Hot honey tea water in a thermos. Things that were practical, considerate and completely at odds with the possessive, territorial way he was moving through my space."Drink," he said, handing me the honey tea water.I took it, my h
Chapter 44: Morning After I woke up sore. Not the good kind of sore that came from consensual, enthusiastic sex where both parties were fully present and in control. The kind of sore that came from being thoroughly, relentlessly used by someone who knew exactly what he was doing and had decided to do it completely. The kind of sore that told a story my body couldn't hide even if my mind wanted it to. My thighs ached. Not just a dull ache, a specific, targeted soreness that came from friction and force and being spread open for hours. My core ached with the deep, internal kind of soreness that came from being stretched in ways my body wasn't used to. My breasts were sore when I moved, the sensitivity heightened, and when I looked in the mirror I could see marks, fingerprints on my ribs, a bruise on my shoulder blade from his mouth, evidence of his claim written across my body in colors that would take days to fade. My entire
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN : Instagram and Honey~Zella's POV~The dishes weren't going to wash themselves.That was the thought I had pulling on something more comfortabl, skirt , an oversized top, the version of myself that existed when nobody was performing anything. Practical. Useful. The kind of thoug
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Paris for Two~Zella's POV~Brynn left at eight thirty like she hadn't spent half of last night crying.She came into the kitchen already in her coat, bag on her shoulder, phone in hand, looking like a woman who had made a decision and was not entertaining second thoughts about it.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN : New Year~Zella's POV~The penthouse was very quiet.Outside Paris was doing what Paris did on New Year's Eve, being dramatic about it, lights and noise and the particular energy of a city that took celebration seriously and had the architecture to match. Inside there was just th
CHAPTER FOURTEEN : New Year's Eve~Zella's POV~Brynn knocked on my door at five o'clock with the energy of someone who had made a decision and was not entertaining second thoughts about it."Get up," she said. "We're getting ready together."I was already sitting on the bed in my robe staring at t







