Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 31 - Chapitre 40

The next morning felt normal at first. Damien woke me the way he usually did now, slow kisses along my spine, hand sliding between my thighs before my eyes were even open. I arched into his touch, still half-dreaming, moaning softly when his fingers found me already wet. He chuckled against my skin, voice deep from sleep. “Morning, baby.”I rolled onto my back, legs falling open without thinking. “Morning.”He kissed me properly with deep, lazy, tongue sliding against mine while his fingers circled my clit in slow, teasing strokes. I was panting into his mouth within seconds, hips rocking up, chasing more. He pulled his hand away just as I started trembling.I whined. “Don’t stop.”“Not yet.” He kissed my jaw. “Shower first. Then I’ll finish what I started.”I glared at him. “You’re evil.”He smirked. “You love it.”He rolled off me, stood, and offered his hand. I took it. Let him pull me up and lead me into the bathroom.The shower was full of steam already rising from the hot water

The gala high lasted exactly three days.Three days of waking up tangled in Damien’s sheets, his mouth on my neck before my eyes were open, his hands already between my legs like he couldn’t wait another second. Three days of him dropping me at campus with a kiss that made my thighs clench the whole lecture. Three days of Sofia texting me nonstop:Sofia: Girl you’re glowing so hard the sun is jealous. Spill or I riot.Me: Later. Promise.Sofia: You said that yesterday. I’m staging a coup.I kept putting her off. Not because I didn’t want to talk, but because every time I thought about telling her the truth about the vibrator in class, the mirror in the VIP bathroom, the way I came screaming his name while the city glittered below, I felt heat crawl up my neck and something else twist in my stomach. Shame? Guilt? Or just the terrifying realization that I was starting to like it too much?Thursday morning Damien left early for a meeting. Kissed my forehead, told me he’d be back by lunch

I met Sofia at the little café two blocks from campus. It was the same place we’d gone to a hundred times before everything turned upside down. Back then we’d sit here for hours complaining about how broke we always were. Now I slid into the booth across from her wearing a high-neck sweater (to hide the worst of the hickeys) and new jeans that actually fit, and I felt like I was wearing someone else’s skin.Sofia looked up from her phone the second I sat. Her eyes went straight to my neck, then narrowed.“You’re hiding something,” she said immediately.I forced a laugh. “Hello to you too.”“Don’t ‘hello’ me.” She leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Pull that collar down.”“No.”“Elena.”I sighed and glanced around the café, nobody was paying attention. I tugged the neck of the sweater down just enough for her to see the dark purple bruise blooming under my jaw.Her eyes widened. Then she whistled low.“What the hell. He’s marking territory now?”I pulled the collar back up fast. “I

The fight changed something. Not everything, Damien was still Damien, still possessive, still watching me like I might vanish if he blinked too long. But after that night in the guest room, after the amazing and tender sex that we had, and then he whispered “I love you” hung still hung in the air between us, but softened the edges. He gave me space when I asked, let me walk to class alone sometimes (with the driver trailing at a distance he thought I didn’t notice) and let me text Sofia without hovering. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better. A month had passed since that first night in the mansion, the night I sold my virginity to a stranger who turned out to be the man who owned my entire world. One month and I didn’t expect him to remember, but Damien remembered everything. That evening he told me to wear the green dress, the one from the gala. The backless one that made me feel dangerous. I put it on without arguing. Let him zip me up, his fingers lingering on my spine. “You

The week after the Lila texts felt like walking on a thin rope. I kept the messages hidden, deleted them every time they came, blocked the number again, told myself it was over, that I was protecting Damien and I was protecting us.But every time my phone buzzed, my stomach dropped.Damien noticed.He didn’t say anything at first, just watched me more closely, touched me more often, kissed me like he was trying to remind me who I belonged to. I let him. Needed him to. Because when he was inside me, when he was growling “mine” against my skin, the guilt quieted down for a little while.Until Thursday. It was the biggest presentation of the semester, the final project for my advanced constitutional law class. The auditorium was packed. Professors from three departments were there. The dean was sitting in the front row.I was supposed to present second, I was already nervous, hands shaking and notes memorized but my mind went blank every time I tried to rehearse in my head.Then my phone