Page 59 of Take Me Darkly

“My advice? Don’t fight him. Just let him think he’s in control. If you push against it, he’ll harden. Then the wall goes up, and like Alex, Anton’s wall is built out of things that happened long before you arrived.”

“And then?” I asked.

“Then the doors open,” she said simply. “When he realizes that he can’t risk losing you, he’ll let you in. Just don’t lose yourself while you wait. Even men like Anton need saving sometimes. When you become his anchor, the façade disappears.”

I sat with her words, letting them settle deep inside me.

“He isn’t as impenetrable as he thinks,” I murmured. “I see glimpses of the man beneath.”

“Of course you do. Men like that always underestimate how much they reveal when they think they’re hiding things. Hold onto those moments. Because when the walls go up—and trust me, they will—you’re going to need to remember that you’ve seen the real thing.”

Chapter Eighteen

Anton

* * *

I felt it before I saw it.

It was the shift that happened every night at Club O somewhere between ten and eleven, when civility began to peel back at the edges and the true nature of this place emerged. The music changed first. The ambient, sensual house gave way to a dark, heavy, bass-driven pulse that vibrated straight through the walls. The crowd responded on instinct, bodies closing the distance, conversations dropping an octave as glances turned heavy and intentional.

I’d watched it happen a thousand times from this exact corner booth, or from behind one of the mahogany bars, or from the shadows of the upper mezzanine. But tonight, I was watching the transformation with Serena seated beside me, her skin glowing under the low amber lights, and that single variable altered my entire universe.

Alexander noticed the vibe change, too. He set down his glass of Barolo and exchanged a brief, silent look with Krystina. It was the effortless, unspoken shorthand of two people who operated as an absolute unit.

Krystina offered a subtle, knowing smile and pushed back her chair.

“We’re going to excuse ourselves,” Alexander said, rising to his feet, his palm settling over the small of Krystina’s back with easy, unquestioned possession. He met my gaze, a flicker of dark amusement dancing in his eyes. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“That leaves an immense amount of territory open,” I replied.

A short laugh escaped him. Krystina leaned down to give Serena’s hand a gentle squeeze before Alexander guided her toward the corridor leading to the private playrooms.

I watched them disappear into the shadows, then turned my attention back to Serena. Her eyes were still fixed on the doorway where they’d vanished, a thoughtful, unreadable expression settling over her features.

“I want to go to one of the playrooms,” she announced softly.

My jaw tightened imperceptibly. She was studying the main floor, her wine glass held loosely in her fingers, her blue eyes dark and searching. I assumed she meant one of the secluded VIP suites—a room like the Obsidian Suite, where I could lock the world out and take her in absolute privacy.

“I can have one of the lower suites cleared⁠—”

“Not a private suite,” she interrupted, finally turning her gaze to mine. “The rooms with other people.”

I went rigid. My eyes searched her face, taking in the faint, delicate flush along her cheekbones and the unnerving, direct certainty in her eyes. I glanced down at her glass. She’d consumed a fair amount of wine over the course of the evening, though she was far from reckless. Her voice was velvet-smooth, her posture composed.

Was she drunk? Or was she intentionally testing the boundaries?

The uncertainty grated on my nerves.

“You want the orgy room,” I stated, my tone dropping into a flat, deadly register.

A sudden wave of color flooded her neck and face. She sat up straighter, setting her glass onto the table with a sharp clink.

“No! God, no,” she stammered, horror flashing across her features. “That is entirely not what I meant.”

A slow, dark smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth. The sheer panic in her voice was genuinely entertaining, but beneath the amusement, a heavy knot of relief untied in my chest.

“Then explain what you meant, princess.”