HOW I FELL - SOPHIA'S POV
I always told myself I wouldn’t be the kind of woman who settled for scraps of a man.
I used to look at women who became mistresses, those whispered-about shadows lingering on the edges of someone else’s life, and think they were weak, foolish, pathetic. And yet here I am, living proof that the heart listens to no one.
I should have stayed away from Adrian Kane the moment I met him. He was dangerous in a way that had nothing to do with his wealth or his reputation, though both of those things wrapped around him like armor. What scared me most was the way he looked at me, as if he already knew what I would taste like, what I would sound like when he finally had me in his bed.
The night it happened was supposed to be ordinary.
A charity gala, all glass chandeliers and flowing champagne, the kind of event I attended for appearances, not for enjoyment. I wore red silk that night, a dress that clung too tightly to my hips and left my back bare. I hadn’t dressed for him. At least that’s what I told myself when I caught his gaze across the ballroom.
Adrian didn’t smile. He didn’t need to. His presence filled the room more thoroughly than the music or the chatter of voices. Black suit. Black tie. Sharp jaw. Eyes that looked like they could strip me bare without a single touch.
I should have turned away. Instead, I let him watch me.
The gala blurred into background noise, faces, laughter, hands brushing mine as I carried a champagne glass I never finished. I felt restless, aware, my nerves tight as wires. Every part of me knew where he was in that room. When he finally moved, when he started walking toward me like a man who already owned me, my heart betrayed me. It raced, it begged, it gave me away.
He didn’t say a word when he reached me. He simply offered his hand, palm up, command written in the way he lifted his chin. I placed mine into his without a moment’s thought, as if I had been waiting my whole life for him to ask.
We left without anyone daring to stop him. Who would ever dare tell Adrian Kane no?
The car ride was silent but charged. My throat was dry, my palms damp, and still I didn’t pull away. I didn’t ask where we were going. I already knew it didn’t matter. His penthouse was exactly what I expected. Glass, steel, clean edges, the kind of place that spoke of power and precision. But I barely noticed it, because the second the door shut behind us, he was on me, one hand gripped my jaw, tilting my face up to his. The other pressed against the small of my back, pulling me flush against his body.
“You’ve been tempting me all night,” he murmured, his voice low and rough.
My lips parted, ready with a protest, but the words never left. His mouth crashed into mine.
It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t careful. It was possession. His kiss consumed me, tongue stroking, teeth dragging, until my lungs forgot how to work. His scent surrounded me, dark and intoxicating, something I knew I would never get out of my head, My hands betrayed me. Instead of pushing him away, they gripped his jacket and pulled him closer. The heat pouring from him seared through the thin silk of my dress, and I couldn’t pretend anymore, I should have told him to stop. I should have remembered who he was and what this would mean. But instead I let him back me against the cool glass wall of his living room window. The city glittered far below, but I couldn’t see anything but him.
His lips trailed down my neck, hot and unrelenting. My pulse thundered under his mouth, and when he nipped at the hollow between my shoulder and throat, a sound I didn’t recognize escaped me.
“Mine,” he whispered against my skin.
One word. That was all it took to undo me.
I should have hated that word. I should have pushed him away from the sheer arrogance of it. But instead I shivered, every nerve alight, desire flooding me until my knees trembled.
He knew, Of course he knew. His hands roamed my body with deliberate slowness. Fingers tracing my spine, my hip, the edge of silk riding higher up my thigh. By the time his palm slid under the fabric, I was trembling, not from fear, but from a hunger so sharp it bordered on pain.
“Adrian…” I whispered his name, half a prayer, half a curse.
He groaned at the sound, like I had given him something he’d been starving for.
After that, there was no stopping. My dress slipped from my shoulders. His mouth was everywhere. His body pressed mine harder into the glass, like he wanted to brand me, fuse me to him. I felt consumed. I felt alive in a way I hadn’t in years.
And when I finally gave myself to him, when the last wall crumbled, I knew there was no going back.That night, I crossed a line I could never uncross, I wasn’t just Adrian’s mistress. I was his possession, his obsession, and his undoing. And he was mine.
The city lights glittered outside, blind to what was happening in that penthouse, but I knew. My life would never be the same.
Because once an Alpha claims you, you don’t belong to yourself anymore.
And God help me, I didn’t want to.
