OWNED BY THE VAMPIRE KING.

The Fear Of Falling.

"Somewhere between fear and desire... I started losing myself to him."

~Two weeks later.~

Two whole weeks of living beside Lucien.

Two weeks of hearing his voice almost every day.

Two weeks of watching him move around this chamber like he owned the world itself.

Maybe he did.

And somehow...

without even realizing it...

I started noticing things I shouldn't.

Small things.

Dangerous things.

The way his voice deepened slightly whenever he said my name.

The way his eyes stayed on me a second longer than necessary sometimes.

The way his fingers brushed against my skin so casually yet always left my heart beating strangely afterward.

I noticed everything.

And that was the problem.

Because the more I noticed him-

the more I started falling.

Slowly.

Hopelessly.

Dangerously.

Ever since the night I tried to escape, Lucien had become even more protective over me.

No.

Protective wasn't even the right word anymore.

Possessive.

That fit better.

At first, I honestly felt grossed out by it.

Whenever Lucien wasn't around, guards stood outside the room like statues while a maid remained inside with me at all times.

At all times.

It didn't matter if I wanted fresh air or simply wanted to walk around the castle for a little while-someone was always watching me.

Always.

At first it made me angry.

It made me feel trapped all over again.

Like a prisoner.

Like someone incapable of making decisions for herself.

Well, I guess I am cause actually I belong to him.

But,deep down I knew exactly why Lucien was doing it.

He didn't want me escaping again.

The thought alone irritated me sometimes.

Especially because he never even tried hiding it.

But strangely...

remembering what happened during my escape attempt...

I slowly stopped complaining—

To myself.

Cause i can't really complain to him, not after I tried to escape, I don't have a death wish yet.

Somehow some sick part of me had started seeing his possessiveness as care.

And honestly?

That terrified me more than anything.

Because what kind of person starts confusing obsession with affection?

Yet every single thing Lucien did somehow affected me deeply.

Even the smallest things.

And what confused me most was the feeding.

He still hadn't fed on me.

Not once.

Two whole weeks living beside him and he still hadn't touched me that way.

At first I stayed tense constantly, expecting him to suddenly lose control one night and sink his fangs into my neck.

But it never happened.

Sometimes I even caught him staring at my neck silently before looking away again.

Like he was stopping himself.

Restraining himself.

And that only made me more confused.

If feeding wasn't the reason he bought me...

then what was?

Why spend such a ridiculous amount of money on me during the auction?

Why keep me beside him constantly?

Why protect me so fiercely?

Questions like that kept circling endlessly inside my head.

And the more I thought about them-

the more dangerous my feelings became.

Because a part of me started hoping.

Hoping maybe he kept me around for reasons beyond blood.

Beyond ownership.

Beyond simply being human.

And that hope was dangerous.

Very dangerous.

At first I tried ignoring my feelings.

I told myself it was impossible.

Ridiculous even.

How could someone like me possibly develop feelings for someone like Lucien?

The vampire king.

A man feared by everyone.

A man capable of killing without remorse.

A man so far above me that even standing beside him sometimes felt unreal.

And me?

I was nothing beside him.

Nothing.

Yet my stupid heart refused to understand that.

It reacted to him anyway.

Every single time.

Sometimes I caught myself staring at him without realizing it.

Watching the way his jaw tightened whenever he got irritated.

Watching the way he sat confidently like someone who had never feared anything a day in his life.

Watching the way his black shirt stretched perfectly across his chest whenever he leaned back against the chair near the fireplace.

God.

Even thinking about him too much made my chest feel tight.

And his lips...

Those damn lips were becoming a serious problem for me.

Especially at night.

Because nighttime was the worst.

That was when my thoughts became uncontrollable.

I would lie awake in the massive bed while he sat somewhere inside the room reading quietly or handling whatever important things kings handled.

And instead of sleeping like a normal person-

my eyes would drift toward him.

Again.

And again.

And again.

It was honestly embarrassing at this point.

Sometimes I found myself wondering stupid things.

What would it feel like if he kissed me?

Would he kiss softly?

Or rough?

Would his hands hold my waist tightly?

Would he pull me closer?

Would his lips taste cold like the rest of him?

The thoughts alone made heat crawl up my neck instantly.

I hated myself for thinking like this.

Especially because I barely even knew what attraction truly felt like before him.

Lucien was literally the first man I had ever been this close to.

The first man I had ever shared a room with.

The first man whose mere presence could completely ruin my ability to think properly.

And he probably didn't even realize what he was doing to me.

Or maybe he did.

That possibility somehow felt worse.

Because sometimes...

sometimes I caught him looking at me in ways that made my stomach tighten strangely.

Like he was thinking deeply about something.

Something dangerous.

And every single time our eyes met during moments like that-

I looked away first.

Always.

I couldn't handle it.

There was just something about the way Lucien stared.

Too intense.

Too direct.

Too consuming.

It felt like he could see every thought inside my head if he looked long enough.

And if he ever found out the kind of things I had been thinking about him lately-

I would genuinely die of embarrassment.

The worst part was that I knew I should stop this immediately.

I had to.

Because nothing good could possibly come from this.

Absolutely nothing.

Lucien was the vampire king.

I kept reminding myself that over and over again like it would magically fix my feelings.

The vampire king.

Not some normal man.

Not someone capable of giving me normal emotions.

Normal affection.

Normal love.

Even the word love sounded ridiculous beside someone like him.

Men like Lucien didn't belong to anyone.

They consumed.

Controlled.

Ruled.

And girls like me?

We were the type who got hurt in stories like this.

I knew that.

So why was it becoming harder and harder to stay away emotionally?

Why did my chest tighten every time he entered the room?

Why did I care whenever he ignored me for too long?

Why did I secretly wait for his attention now?

It was pathetic.

Completely pathetic.

And yet...

I couldn't stop.

Because Lucien made it impossible to stop.

Sometimes he would say my name so softly it stayed in my head for hours afterward.

Sometimes his fingers would brush my skin accidentally and my entire body would react like an i***t.

Sometimes he would look at me with those dark unreadable eyes and suddenly I couldn't breathe properly anymore.

And God-

the way he looked at me sometimes...

It almost felt dangerous to hope.

Dangerous to imagine maybe-

just maybe-

I affected him too.

But I forced myself to stop those thoughts immediately whenever they appeared.

Because that road could only end badly for me.

I knew it.

Still...

every night I found myself staring at him longer than I should.

Wondering things I shouldn't.

Wanting things I definitely shouldn't.

And slowly-

without permission-

Lucien was becoming the center of my thoughts.

The center of everything.

And no matter how many times I told myself to stop falling for him...

my heart never listened.