CHAPTER 04: KISS
950 Words
ZARA'S POV
Most of my time is spent traveling from city to city, pouring myself into charity work, organizing drives, speaking at events, helping raise both money and awareness. It’s the only part of my life that feels like it’s truly mine. The only thing that makes me feel like I’m actually doing something that matters. And I love it for that.
But my father? He loathes every second of it.
To him, it’s a distraction. A foolish detour that’s steering me away from what he considers a proper future. He wants a daughter who’s polished and obedient, someone who knows how to smile quietly in the background while wearing designer heels and pearls. Someone who plays her role as a high-society woman with one goal in mind: marry someone powerful, stay silent, and produce heirs.
In his eyes, my life is supposed to be a checklist: nod politely, agree to everything, keep the house pristine, and be grateful for a gilded cage.
For a while, I believed I could change the script. I hoped I’d have the courage to choose a different path, something less suffocating. But I was wrong.
Now, I’m trapped. The engagement is official, the celebration already held, and my father made himself crystal clear, there will be no backing out. He practically spat the words when he warned me not to bring shame to our family.
The man I’m supposed to marry? He’s cold, distant, and comes from a family with ties no one talks about above a whisper. Mafia blood. A surname that belongs in a crime report. I doubt he even knows how to love, let alone let go.
This isn’t a choice. It’s a sentence.
“Hey,” Sav’s voice breaks through the fog of dread in my mind, pulling me back to the present. “You look like you’re a million miles away.”
He stands beside me with that casual confidence that makes everything feel easier, lighter. He’s nothing like the men my father would deem appropriate. He’s relaxed, playful, and just dangerous enough to make my heart skip for all the right reasons. He leans against the nearby lamppost, a crooked smile on his lips that could convince anyone to say yes.
“How about we go somewhere warmer?” he offers, voice soft but teasing. “There’s a little café around the corner. Best chocolate chip cookies in the city.”
It’s not just the idea of cookies. It’s what his tone ignites in me, something wild, something unspoken. A whisper inside that urges me to run. Just for a little while. Just for tonight.
Maybe a little rebellion is exactly what I need.
“Take me there,” I reply.
We don’t get far, only a block or so, when something shifts between us. The silence falls heavy, not awkward, but intense. As we pass a narrow alley, he looks at me, and though he doesn’t say anything, the question is in his eyes.
I answer it with a step.
One moment later, I’m pressed against the cold brick wall, his body closing in on mine. His mouth claims mine in a kiss that shatters my breath, fierce and full of heat. Everything else disappears. I’m not thinking. I’m not analyzing. I’m just feeling. My fingers slide across his chest, down to the buckle of his belt, trembling with anticipation and want.
It’s reckless. Exposed. And completely unlike anything I’ve done before.
But I don’t care.
Right now, I don’t want to be composed or proper. I don’t want to be my father’s flawless daughter. I just want to be me, the version that exists only in the shadows, the one that breathes in moments like this.
His hands slip to my thighs, gripping me firmly as he lifts me, pressing me against him. My legs wrap around his hips on instinct, needing to be closer, to feel more. There’s a hunger between us that’s been simmering and now threatens to boil over.
His hand slips beneath my waistband, seeking me out, and I moan into the kiss, clutching his coat like it’s the only thing anchoring me. His touch is unhurried but deliberate, sending fire straight through my veins. I throw my head back as heat blooms inside me, breathless from how easily he unravels me.
I pull away just to breathe, gasping against the cold night air, but Sav doesn’t stop. His lips move along my neck, warm and commanding. Every soft bite, every kiss, makes my skin prickle and my core clench.
And just like that, the weight of my future slips away. For these stolen minutes, there is no arranged wedding. No suffocating expectations. No voice telling me who I’m supposed to be.
There’s only him.
And me.
And the fire that keeps growing.
I can barely hold myself together. The sounds slipping from my throat are no longer things I can control. My body trembles against his, each movement deeper, more desperate than the last. When he murmurs my name into my skin, low and breathless, it feels like a promise I’ll never hear again, but will remember forever.
Time slows, the world fading away. All that exists are the stolen breaths, the rhythm of our bodies, and the wild pounding of my heart.
Tomorrow, I’ll wake up in the silk sheets of my perfect little life. I’ll wear the ring I never wanted, smile like a mannequin, and pretend everything is fine.
But tonight?
Tonight, I’m not pretending.
I’m not a symbol or a puppet. I’m not trapped in the role someone else wrote for me.
Tonight, I’m untamed. I’m real.
And I don’t owe anyone an apology for that.
- Writer
