Chapter 5: Broken Rules, Burning Beds
760 Words
Chapter 5: Broken Rules, Broken Beds
(Jealousy tastes like fire)
Cade’s words hung in the air like a match over gasoline.
Now, I don’t care if I do.
Aria’s breath caught. The penthouse suddenly felt smaller, darker—too intimate.
“Cade…” she whispered.
But he was already closing the distance.
His hand slid to the nape of her neck, pulling her into him. No hesitation. No more control.
His mouth met hers with fire.
Not gentle.
Not sweet.
This was a kiss made of fury and frustration, hunger and heat. A kiss that claimed her, consumed her, devoured every line of resistance she’d drawn between them.
Aria gasped against him, her hands fisting in his shirt as he backed her toward the wall. The cold marble met her spine. His body caged hers in.
“I tried,” he growled against her lips. “Tried to stay away. Tried to pretend I didn’t want you.”
Her pulse pounded. “You don’t get to pretend anymore.”
He gripped her thighs, lifting her effortlessly. Her legs wrapped around his waist like instinct. She could feel how hard he was already—how close to losing control.
“Say it,” he whispered. “Say you want this.”
“I want it,” she breathed. “I want you.”
Something snapped inside him.
Cade carried her through the penthouse, never breaking the kiss, crashing through his own walls with every step. He kicked open the bedroom door—his bedroom—and threw her onto the bed like she belonged there.
Because maybe… she did.
He followed her down, lips on her neck, jaw, collarbone. Each kiss was a brand, each touch a warning.
You’re mine.
Her dress was gone in seconds. Silk peeled from skin. He took a long moment to look at her—really look—eyes tracing every curve like a man starved.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured, voice rough.
And then his mouth was on her again. She arched under him, lost in sensation, drowning in the heat he’d kept caged for too long.
Her hands found the hem of his shirt, yanking it over his head. Muscles. Scars. Heat. He was power wrapped in skin—and tonight, he was hers.
He pinned her wrists above her head, lowering his mouth to her ear. “You have no idea what you’ve started.”
“Then show me,” she whispered.
And Cade did.
He worshipped her. Possessed her. Broke every rule he had made and rewrote them with his body.
By the time he drove into her—hard and deep—Aria cried out, nails dragging down his back, mind unraveling.
“Mine,” he growled into her throat. “Say it.”
“Yes,” she gasped. “I’m yours.”
The bed creaked. Their bodies moved like they’d known each other in a thousand other lives. The kind of rhythm that couldn’t be faked. That couldn’t be denied.
He gave her everything.
And when they collapsed together, breathless and tangled in the sheets, silence fell like the aftermath of a storm.
But it wasn’t peace.
It was something far more dangerous.
Because nothing between them would ever be simple again.
Aria woke to sunlight streaming through the windows and the ache of muscles she didn’t know she had. Cade’s side of the bed was empty, but warm.
She wrapped the sheet around her and padded into the living room.
He was there—shirtless, phone in hand, staring out the glass.
He turned when he heard her, and something changed in his eyes.
“You shouldn’t have left last night,” he said quietly.
“You kissed me.”
“You kissed him first.”
The memory of Damon’s lips flickered. So did the shame.
“I didn’t sleep with him.”
Cade’s jaw clenched. “But you wanted to.”
Her silence was all the answer he needed.
He stepped forward. “Do you want him now?”
“No.”
“Do you want me?”
She nodded.
But his next words pierced her like ice.
“Then don’t lie to me again.”
She stepped back, stung. “I didn’t lie.”
“Half-truths are lies, Aria. And in my world, they get people hurt.”
Her heart sank. “So what are we now?”
Cade’s expression was unreadable. “We’re what we always were.”
He walked past her, brushing her shoulder—but not stopping.
“Bound by a contract.”
- Writer
