All Chapters of Craving Forbidden Pleasures : Chapter 281 - Chapter 290

Morning came thick with silence, heavy as fog. The cabin still stank of sweat and blood, the aftermath of what had been less a night of passion and more a battlefield disguised as intimacy. Mara sat on the edge of the bed, a thin blanket clutched around her bare skin, her throat raw, her wrists sore from the First’s grip.The First stirred restlessly, muttering curses in half-sleep. His face was bruised, jaw swollen where the Second had struck him. The Second had not moved from his corner. He sat, still and watchful, arms folded as though he had been carved from the shadow itself. Only his eyes betrayed life—unblinking, sharp, burning.Mara’s heart raced under their gaze. Both of them waiting. Both of them measuring her silence. Both of them desperate to read the smallest twitch of her lips.She had given them nothing last night, and it had worked. But now… now she had to sharpen the blade.Slowly, she rose from the bed, ignoring the ache in her thighs, the soreness in her chest. She

The storm broke at dusk.Mara felt it before it came—the shift in the room, the tightening of shoulders, the sudden sharpness of every breath. The First had been prowling all day, circling the cabin like a lion denied meat. The Second had remained as silent as stone, but silence could cut as sharply as a blade.And Mara… Mara had whispered enough into each of them to make their hearts burn like kindling.She knew the moment was near. Her stomach knotted, her pulse thrummed, but her eyes stayed wide, soft, trembling—playing helpless even as her mind mapped every shadow, every knife, every heartbeat.The First broke first.He slammed the door shut, locking it with a vicious clatter, then turned, wild-eyed, his chest heaving. “I can’t breathe with you in this room,” he spat at the Second. His fists clenched, his lip curling into something half-snarl, half-smile. “You watch her like you own her. Like you think she looks at you when she cries.”The Second finally moved. He stood from the c

The storm broke without warning.Mara had felt it simmering for days—the sharpness in the First’s voice, the way the Second lingered closer to the cabin than before. Every touch, every glance, every breath carried the crackle of something about to ignite.Now it was here.The First slammed the door behind him, the wooden frame rattling. His eyes burned as he stalked across the floor, his hand clamping around Mara’s arm with a grip that bordered on bruising.“Enough,” he snarled. “I want the truth.”Her lips parted. “Truth about what?”His jaw clenched so tightly she thought it might crack. “Don’t play innocent. I see the way you look at him. I hear the words you don’t say.”Mara’s throat tightened, fear flickering in her belly—but she forced it down, burying it beneath practiced tremors. She widened her eyes, lips trembling. “You think I want him? You think I’d betray you after everything—”“Then prove it.” His voice was a growl, his breath hot against her face. His hand slid from her

The air in the cabin was a noose. Tight. Heavy. Unforgiving.For two nights, Mara had let them circle her like wolves forced into the same cage. They paced, growled, watched each other through her. The First with his fire, the Second with his ice. They hadn’t touched each other since the fight — but their suspicion never left, and every moment pressed harder against her skin.She was supposed to be the prey.But something in her had shifted.She saw it in the way their eyes followed her. In the way they swallowed their pride rather than risk losing her altogether.For the first time since this nightmare began, Mara realized:They were the ones trapped.The chance came at dawn.She woke to the First’s arm heavy across her waist, his breath rough against the back of her neck. Across the room, the Second sat in the chair, eyes red from sleeplessness, staring like a sentinel.Mara didn’t shrink between them. She didn’t cower.Instead, she turned her body deliberately, pressing her back ha

The cabin smelled of smoke, sweat, and skin. Ash still clung to the air, faint and bitter, from the firewood that had burned down to glowing embers.Mara lay tangled between them, one arm curled across the First’s chest, her thigh draped over the Second’s hip. They hadn’t let her move far, not even in sleep. One clung to her from behind, the other from the front, as though both feared that if they let go, she would vanish into air.Her eyes opened slowly. Dawn bled pale light through the shutters. Their bodies were heavy against her, each heartbeat thunderous in her ear.For a long, quiet moment, Mara just breathedShe had done it. Not only survived, but claimed. Bent them into submission, forced them to kneel, and then taken them both inside her fire until there was nothing left but need and surrender.Yet lying there between them, with their breath hot on her skin, Mara understood something else.The truce was fragile.Her command, her dominance — it had worked. Last night, they obe