All Chapters of Caught In Between Lust And Desires Book 2: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

🖱️ Victor 🖱️I sat in that small chair by the window, hands folded in my lap like a stranger waiting for permission to exist, and let myself actually look at the room for the first time since Jayden had pulled me into it.It wasn't hard to see it. The love, I mean. It was everywhere, woven into every corner of the space so completely that I felt like an intruder just breathing the same air. A framed photograph on the dresser, the two of them younger, laughing at something outside the frame, Sammy's arm slung easy and possessive around Jayden's shoulders. A soft blue blanket draped over the foot of the bed that looked hand-knitted, clearly old, clearly cared for. Two mismatched mugs on the nightstand, one chipped at the handle, both clearly used often enough that nobody had bothered replacing them.Ten years of a life built entirely without me.I traced the edge of the small table beside my chair, fingers brushing against a stack of books that looked recently read, one on werewolf pa

🖱️ Jane 🖱️I hadn't stopped shaking since the crash, kneeling on the floor of our room with a healing salve in one hand and River's bare, bruised back stretched out in front of me, the deep gash along his spine finally cleaned and ready to close."Hold still," I muttered, more to myself than to him."I'm being very still.""You're breathing too loud.""I'm breathing at all, which, given the day we've had, I consider a personal triumph."I smeared the salve carefully along the wound, watching the torn skin knit slowly back together under the healing magic, my hands far less steady than I wanted them to be. River hissed once, low, and I froze immediately."Sorry.""Don't apologize. Keep going." He glanced back at me over his shoulder, some of his usual teasing dimmed by real exhaustion. "You look worse than I feel, and I'm the one who nearly had his spine rearranged by a falling train.""I'm fine.""You're not fine. You've been silent for twenty minutes, and you're only ever silent wh

🖱️ River 🖱️Jane fell asleep before I did, which almost never happened.She lay curled against my chest, one hand still fisted loosely in my shirt even in sleep, like some part of her refused to fully let go of the fear that had gripped her since the moment that train dropped out of the sky. I didn't move. I just lay there in the dark, listening to her breathing even out, feeling the steady thrum of her heartbeat gradually slow against my ribs, and let myself finally acknowledge how close today had actually come to ending very differently.I'd felt the ground rushing up before I fully registered what was happening. That kind of clarity only ever showed up in the worst moments — everything slowing down, sharpening, my entire body making the decision to shield her before my mind had even caught up to the choice. I didn't regret it. I would make that same choice a thousand times over without hesitation.But lying here now, safe, healed, her weight warm and real against my chest, I let

🖱️ Victor 🖱️I couldn't sleep and how the hell would I sleep with the two people I believe I hated lying beside me.Jayden lay between us, breathing slow and even, his face finally unguarded in a way it never seemed to manage while he was awake. I stared at him in the dim light, at the soft part of his lips, and felt the ghost of that earlier kiss still burning against my own mouth, refusing to let me settle no matter how many times I closed my eyes and tried to force my body toward rest.‘Don't,’ my monster warned quietly.I ignored him.I shifted slowly, propping myself up on one elbow, close enough now that I could feel the warmth radiating off Jayden's skin, close enough that ten years of grief and longing collapsed down into the single, reckless distance separating my mouth from his."Don't even dare," Sammy growled from the other side of the bed, voice low and sharp despite his obvious exhaustion, one eye cracking open just enough to catch what I was doing.I did it anyway.I

🖱️ Jayden 🖱️I woke slowly, the way mornings had felt gentle so rarely lately, and found Victor still asleep beside me.For a long moment I just watched him. The soft, unguarded stillness of his face, so different from the sharp, defensive angles it wore while he was awake and bracing for the world to hurt him first. Even with a face that wasn't quite the one I remembered… different bones, different lines, ten years of someone else's life etched faintly into the shape of him, underneath it all still felt unmistakably, achingly like mine.Happiness overtook me so completely it startled me, warm and sudden, spreading through my chest until I felt almost dizzy with it.He was here. Sleeping beside me, safe, breathing, real in a way I'd stopped letting myself fully believe was possible somewhere around the third or fourth month of a mark that only ever offered pain without answers.I couldn't help myself.I leaned in slowly and pressed my lips to his, soft and unhurried, some quiet, rev