He doesn’t give me a second to adjust. He thrusts again, hard and fast, driving himself deep until pleasure bursts like white light behind my eyes. It’s a brutal, relentless pace. I try to shift, to find some air, but there’s no escaping him. He has me pinned, his hand steady around my throat and his body acting as a cage.
He’s everywhere at once. His mouth devours mine, then moves to my jaw and my eyelids, his breath hot and ragged against my skin. The world shrinks down to the sound of our skin hitting and the bed creaking under his weight.
I’m drowning in him. I lock my legs around his waist, pulling him even closer, wanting to feel every bit of the friction. His stamina is unreal; he doesn’t slow down, doesn’t tire, just keeps pushing me further and further toward the edge.
My pride is the first thing to break. The sensation is so intense, so overwhelming, that I can’t keep the silence anymore. I’m desperate for that explosion, for the release that feels just out of reach.
“Sebastian,” I gasp, my voice trembling. “Please…I can’t…please.”
I’m begging him now, my fingers digging into his back, my body arched and shaking. I don’t care about the past or the mistakes we made. I just need him to break me again.
He looks down at me, a dark, smug grin pulling at his lips as he watches me unravel. He doesn’t give me what I need—not yet. He slows his pace just enough to torture me, his eyes searching mine.
“Tell me what you want, Sienna,” he murmurs, his voice vibrating deep in his chest. “Say it.”
“Please,” I choke out, my pride long gone. “I want to come. Sebastian, please.”
He lets out a low, dark laugh that vibrates through my entire body. Finally, he slips his hand down between our joined bodies. His thumb finds that sensitive bundle of nerves and applies a sharp, rhythmic pressure while he continues his deep, rhythmic thrusting.
I explode shamelessly.
The scream is ripped from my lungs as my body arches off the bed, my muscles seizing in a peak so intense it feels like I’m breaking apart. I’m lost in the waves of it, my vision blurring as I cling to his shoulders.
With one final, powerful thrust, Sebastian’s grip on my throat tightens just a fraction. He lets out a guttural growl, his head falling into the crook of my neck as he finally shatters after me. His weight becomes a heavy, grounding force as he pours himself into the release, his heart hammering against mine.
Slowly, the frantic noise of the room fades. The only sound left is our ragged, synchronized breathing.
As we come down from the high, silence reigns. The heat that felt so right moments ago begins to cool, replaced by a heavy, suffocating tension. He doesn’t move, and I don’t pull away, both of us trapped in the quiet aftermath of a mistake we were both too desperate to avoid.
Suddenly, his arm drapes over my waist, his hand splayed across my stomach. His body molds against mine like a memory I thought I’d buried.
I lie in the darkness, staring at the ceiling, my heartbeat slowly settling—but not enough to quiet the storm in my chest.
I can feel his breath along the back of my shoulder, the steady weight of his presence. The temptation of peace whispers at the edges, but peace is a luxury I don’t get. Forgiveness is a language I refuse to speak.
He drifts to sleep with his forehead resting against my shoulder, protective, unconscious. I stay awake. My body still tingles from him, my heart betraying me with each traitorous beat.
And my mind—relentless, precise—returns to the review that shattered him, to every lie, every manipulation, every calculated cruelty that came after that. My mind traces the plan I’ve built with precision sharper than any knife. I’ve slept in his arms before. It cost me everything.
Not this time.
This time, I’ll take from him instead.
I close my eyes slowly, letting the weight of his arm settle over me like a vow I refuse to believe. Revenge will come. Just not tonight.
Chapter 13 – Sebastian
I don’t know what I expected, but it isn’t this.
Not the coldness. Not the silence stretches tight between us like a wire ready to snap.
Hours have passed since morning, and Sienna is nothing like the woman from last night. That woman had heat in her eyes. Fire in her touch. This one is polished, distant, lost in control so complete it unsettles me.
She slipped out of my arms at dawn like I was something toxic. No good morning. No glance back. Just cool efficiency as she went about her routine as if nothing had happened between us. As if she hadn’t been pressed against me only hours earlier, breathing my name into the dark.
Breakfast was worse. She sat across from me, elegant and quiet, answering my questions with clipped, polite responses. No warmth. No edge. Just absence. I’ve faced enemies who gave me more to work with.
Now it’s afternoon, and we’re preparing to leave for the private post-wedding dinner at Dimitri’s estate.
