Bound by passion

Chapter Four: Secrets

I pulled away before his lips could claim mine, stumbling back as if I’d just woken from a dangerous dream. My pulse was wild, my chest rising and falling like I’d run a marathon, but I forced myself to look away.

“This… this can’t happen,” I whispered, more to myself than to him.

Adrian’s jaw tightened, his eyes darkening as though my resistance wounded him. “Why not? Don’t lie to me, Isabella. You feel it as much as I do.”

That was the problem. I *did* feel it. Too much. Enough to make me reckless, enough to make me forget every promise I had made to myself after the heartbreak that nearly broke me in two. I had sworn never to give my heart so easily again—never to let desire cloud my judgment.

But Adrian wasn’t like anyone else. He was different. Dangerous. And yet irresistible.

“I don’t even know who you really are,” I shot back, trying to steady my trembling hands. “You just show up out of nowhere, acting like you know me, like you already own me. But what do I know about you? Nothing.”

For the first time, something shifted in his expression. His confident mask cracked, and behind it I caught a glimpse of something raw, something he didn’t want me to see.

“There are things about me,” he said slowly, “that you wouldn’t understand. Things I can’t tell you. Not yet.”

I froze, my heart tightening. Secrets. I knew that look—knew it too well. My last relationship had been built on lies, and when the truth came out, it had destroyed me.

I took another step back, shaking my head. “Then that’s exactly why this can’t happen. I won’t do this again. I won’t let myself fall for someone who’s hiding pieces of themselves from me.”

His gaze softened, but the fire never left his eyes. “You think you can walk away, Isabella, but you can’t. Passion doesn’t wait for the right time. It doesn’t care about secrets or fears. It just… burns.”

And then, as if the universe wanted to remind me how dangerous this was, my phone buzzed on the table. I glanced at the screen, my stomach dropping the moment I saw the name.

*Daniel.*

The man I thought I had left in my past. The man who wasn’t supposed to find me again.

I quickly silenced the phone, hoping Adrian hadn’t noticed, but his sharp eyes never missed anything.

“Who was that?” he asked, his voice low, almost possessive.

My lips parted, but no sound came out. Because in that instant, I realized something terrifying.

Adrian was not the only one with secret. so was I