CHAPTER 5
757 Words
The message haunted them both.
"You thought she was the only one watching?"
Lucas had forwarded the number to his security team. They were already working to trace it. But even as the fire of investigation raged in the background, Lucas had made one decision that overrode everything else:
He needed to be near Elena.
He needed something real to hold onto.
By the time they reached his penthouse, the city had disappeared behind glass and steel. The elevator opened directly into his living room sleek, masculine, and silent except for the low hum of city lights outside the towering windows.
Elena stood just inside, arms wrapped around herself.
"Is it always like this for you?" she asked softly. "Always one step from the next hit?"
Lucas poured two glasses of wine and handed her one.
"It used to be easier when I felt nothing," he said. "When there was no one to lose."
She met his gaze over the rim of her glass.
"And now?"
"Now you're here."
He took a step closer. "And it terrifies me how much I care."
The honesty cracked something in her.
"I’m scared too, Lucas," she admitted. "But not of you. Of how easy it is to fall back into this. Like no time passed at all."
His voice lowered. “Maybe because it never really did.”
Their eyes locked. Neither moved for a breathless second.
Then Lucas set down his glass and stepped in front of her, close enough to feel the heat of her skin. He reached up and brushed a strand of hair from her cheek.
“I keep thinking,” he murmured, “about the last time I touched you.”
Her breath caught.
“How careful I was. How I memorized every second because I thought it might be the last.”
He leaned in, pressing a kiss to her forehead, then her temple, then down to the curve of her jaw.
Elena closed her eyes, her body drawn to his like a magnet. Her hands slid up his chest, fisting gently in his shirt.
“And now?” she whispered.
“Now I want to stop pretending I don’t need you.”
He kissed her then soft at first, testing, tasting. But it grew quickly. Months of tension, years of aching separation surged through every movement. She moaned softly into his mouth, and the sound undid him.
He picked her up in one swift motion, her legs wrapping instinctively around his waist as he carried her through the open loft, past walls of glass and into the darkened bedroom.
The moment they hit the bed, everything changed.
His hands were on her, sliding up her thighs, under her blouse, over the smooth curve of her back. She pulled at his shirt, desperate to feel skin. Every movement was urgent, aching, hungry.
When she was bare beneath him, he paused.
His eyes swept over her reverent, almost disbelieving.
"You’re still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen."
Her fingers curled at his waist, tugging him down. “Then don’t waste another second.”
Their bodies met like puzzle pieces, fitting together as if they’d been made to. The heat, the rhythm, the need—it all fused into something deeper. Something unspoken.
He kissed her like he was making promises with every breath.
She held him like she’d never let go again.
And when they finally shattered together, wrapped in each other’s arms, it was more than just s*x. It was surrender. Forgiveness. Home.
They lay in the silence after, the sheets tangled and warm around them. Lucas’s fingers traced soft circles along Elena’s spine.
“I didn’t just miss you,” he said into her hair. “I waited for you.”
She rested her head against his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart. “I think I was always coming back to you. Even when I didn’t know it.”
He tilted her chin up, meeting her gaze.
“No more lies. No more secrets. We face the rest together.”
Elena nodded. “Together.”
But just as the promise settled between them, Lucas’s phone buzzed again.
He reached for it reluctantly, eyes scanning the message.
His body tensed.
“What is it?” Elena asked.
He turned the screen to her.
It was a photo grainy, taken from a distance. But unmistakable.
It was them. Through the penthouse window. In bed.
And beneath it, a message:
“You made her your weakness. Now she’ll be mine.”
- Writer
