This chapter has some explicit content. If it's unbearable, please skip.
Victoria didn’t know how long she stood beneath the rain.
The tears had stopped hours ago. What was left behind was worse — an empty ache, like her soul had been scraped clean and left raw.
She walked without direction, her heels clicking softly against the pavement as thunder rumbled far in the distance. The glow of the hotel, Elysian Suites, came into view — elegant and cold, like the life she thought she had.
The receptionist offered a polite smile as she checked in, unaware that the woman before him was slowly falling apart inside.
Room 705.
She didn’t even unpack. Her purse hit the armchair. Her phone went face down. The silence in the room screamed louder than any confrontation ever could.
She stared at the ceiling. She wanted to scream. To break something. To forget.
Instead, she grabbed her coat and walked out again — this time toward a dim-lit corner shop nestled beside a flower stall. Her reflection in the glass looked like someone else.
Someone broken.
Inside, she didn’t speak. Just pointed to a bottle of vodka, two small tequila shots, and a can of strong cider.
She returned to the hotel like a woman walking toward fire.
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The first sip burned.
The second numbed.
By the fourth, her lips had gone slack and her knees loose. Her thoughts scattered like leaves in the wind.
Somewhere in the haze, she stood and wobbled toward the hallway. She was trying to reach the bathroom, but her steps strayed left… then further.
She didn’t notice when she passed her room.
Didn’t notice when her hand reached for the door of Room 709, already slightly ajar.
She pushed it open.
Inside, the light was low. Jazz played from somewhere faint. The room smelled like cologne, wood, and sin.
She was about to turn back — when she saw him.
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He stood near the window, shirt unbuttoned, one hand gripping a whiskey glass. His eyes were shadowed — unreadable, but piercing.
A stranger. But he looked just as shattered as she felt.
Their eyes locked.
He didn’t ask who she was.
She didn’t ask what he was doing.
There was only one question between them — unspoken, burning, inevitable.
Do you want to forget, too?
He crossed the room slowly. “You look lost.”
“So do you,” she whispered.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he murmured against her neck.
“Then stop me.”
But he didn’t.
He kissed her—hard, possessive, like she was a question he’d been aching to answer. Her hands curled around his neck as their mouths crashed. Tongues collided. Their breathing turned ragged.
His fingers found the clasp of her bra, and in a single flick, it came undone. His mouth dipped to her breast, sucking gently before his teeth grazed her n****e. She gasped, arching into him, her nails digging into his back.
Victoria moaned as he lowered her onto the mattress, spreading her thighs with bold, deliberate hands. His lips trailed down her stomach, leaving wet, open kisses along her skin until he reached the edge of her panties.
He looked up, eyes dark with heat.
“Tell me to stop,” he whispered.
She didn’t.
Instead, she reached down and guided his head between her thighs.
His tongue was sinful. Slow. Expert. He devoured her like he was starving, like every flick and stroke of his tongue was punishment and pleasure wrapped in one. She writhed under him, breathless, fingers in his hair as he brought her to the edge—then dragged her back, again and again.
She came undone with a cry, her entire body trembling.
But he wasn’t finished.
He flipped her gently, pressing himself behind her, his breath warm on her neck as he entered her slowly, inch by aching inch.
She gasped again, stretching to take him, his hand gripping her waist tightly as he thrust into her—deep and slow, then harder, faster.
Skin against skin.
The room filled with the sounds of their bodies, of their pain, their need, their escape.
She didn’t know his name.
She didn’t ask.
And he didn’t stop until they had both shattered into each other—until the pain inside them dulled into breathless silence.
She fell asleep in his arms, not knowing, exhausted.