All Chapters of TWO LIVES - Shattered Illusion : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

He’d had several women in the past, hell, and a goddamn threesome barely half an hour before she walked in, yet he couldn't control how his body jiggled at the sight of her clothed. For a man in his line of work, he’d mastered the art of restraint, kept his libido in check, but now it felt like every year of discipline just stopped working.He wondered how ripe her breasts would feel in his hands, how her lips would taste under his. His mind painted pictures of what she wore under the clinging crop top and leggings until she actually took them off, fuck! it took ever ounce of self control not to tear her apart.But that wasn’t him. Rapha didn’t take what wasn’t freely given even if her whole body screamed yes, still, he waited for the voice. Always the goddamn voice, and that is what made it worse. He hated that voice, hated that she hadn’t refused the offer, even though he would’ve taken it like a blade to the ribs if she had. Hated that she thought seduction was something she chose

Rapha dropped her onto the leather couch, and the weight of her body sank into the cold, unforgiving cushions.“Get the meds,” he commanded curtly without so much as a glance at Kade.Kade exited the room, and the door clicked shut behind, the sound rattling through the space. Niya recoiled. Her expression was all discomfort, with clenched jaw, glassy eyes, cheeks mottled with colour. Her once-blue top was now darkened with sweat that the fabric plastered against her ribs and collarbone. Stray strands of hair were glued to her forehead giving her the look of someone who had barely fought and lost a battle.Rapha stood by the door, still as stone. His back was a wall she couldn’t scale, but the stillness in his shoulders spoke volumes. She didn’t need to see his face to feel the pull of his attention and the gravity of it like a wire strung too tight.She didn’t dare meet his eyes, her fingers clutched her purse like it could protect her, like a thin barrier between her and something

It occurred to her that she was happy. She knew it was happiness because the thought came to her independent of any careful consideration and it wasn’t ruined by further inspection. It just… happened.It was on a night when the house was quiet, the power was out, and she was with the person she loved most whom she’d met only the week before. She was seven, and Niya was just a year older. She had just been adopted, Niya hadn’t and couldn’t afford to be away from her, not after she’d finally found someone who felt like a sister.They both sat on Niya's father’s small couch meant to fit one person, but their tiny bodies folded perfectly into the space. Niya remembered that before this little girl arrived, she barely ate, running water was scarce, the internet didn’t exist in any meaningful way to her, and she didn’t really care. Or maybe she didn’t even know what it was.Only now did Niya realize how hard her parents must’ve fought to stay afloat after losing everything, before they ende

Niya was in his house - his parents’ house, he’d said. The walls were bare, quiet, and sterile in a way that exuded deep grief being scrubbed clean. It was the day she’d moved in…the day everything changed, even if she didn’t know it yet. “You’re early.” Alex tossed his keys on a tray by the door.“I was going to say the same,” Niya unzipped her jacket, folding it over her arm. “But then I remembered this is your house.”He gave a slight smile, one of those closed-lip ones that barely moved his face but somehow made her pulse splutter. “Do you want a drink?”“Only if you’re having one.”“I’m not.”“Then I don’t.”He raised a brow and disappeared into the kitchen.Niya twirled, taking in the clean lines of his furniture, the faint scent of his citrusy cologne and books and money, things she couldn’t name but could feel.“You ever relax?” she asked.“Not when I have company.”She smirked. “How convenient.”He returned with a bottle of water and held it out. “You’re at my place. You sh

She shouldn’t have come. She knew better than this, but she came anyway.Her father's car crawled up the slope, sputtered one last complaint before screeching faintly as she pulled up in front of the house… no, the manor, as everyone called it, though it had long since lost its glory. She stepped down, one hand braced against the cool metal door as the wind stung her cheeks. Late October air had no warmth in it as it bit through the fabric of her coat, needling through her jeans, and made her fingers feel like brittle sticks.She buried her hands deep into her coat pockets. The coat was old, fraying at the edges, and barely thick enough for this weather, but that's what she got after losing the other one at Silvershore. A gust swept past her, carrying the scent of wet earth and burning leaves. Brown, lifeless foliage scraped across the concrete and curled around her sneakers.A crooked FOR SALE sign leaned against the short wooden fence, the red letters had started to run, like they