His Empire,Her Rules

9

I spent the entire week pretending Lorenzo didn’t exist,I came to work early, left early, and avoided any hallway that even smelled like him even though it wasn’t entirely possible but I tried.I buried myself in reports, meetings, emails,social media posts,just anything that kept my mind busy enough not to wander back to the way he looked at me at the gala or the way my body reacted when he stood too close last time in his office.

But every time I pushed him out of my head, something pulled him right back in.

A glance from across the boardroom during the meetings if I had my way I would have avoided the meetings just to not see him.

A brush of his voice as he spoke to Dan.

A memory I didn’t ask for replaying itself in my head.

By the fourth day, I was tired,tired of pretending this thing between us wasn’t real,tired of avoiding him,tired of making up things in my head about him,which is probably why I stayed late.

The office was quiet, eerily quiet.My heels clicked softly on the marble floor as I walked toward the elevator.

Then I saw him.

Lorenzo,against my will my heart skipped a bit.

Leaning against the wall like he had been waiting there on purpose. The top buttons of his shirt undone tattoos peaking out,tie loose, hair slightly messy like he had been running his hands through it all day.

His eyes lifted the second he sensed me and just like that my pulse betrayed me.

“Sophia,” he said, his voice low and rough. “We’re not doing this anymore.”

I stopped. “Doing what?”

“This.” He pushed off the wall and walked toward me with that slow, controlled intensity that always made my stomach tighten. “You avoiding me and acting like I don’t exist.”

“I’m not avoiding—”

“Don’t even try to lie,you are.” His jaw tightened. “And you’re terrible at it.”

My breath caught.

He stopped right in front of me close enough for me to smell the faint hint of whiskey and cedarwood on him.

“Look at me,” he whispered.

I shouldn’t have.

I knew I shouldn’t have.

But I did.

And the moment our eyes met, something inside me cracked.

His voice dropped. “Tell me you feel nothing. Tell me to stop. Just say it, and I will.”

I opened my mouth…

But nothing came out.

Because I couldn’t lie to him. Not about this.

He stepped closer, lowering his head until our foreheads almost touched.

“Sophia,” he breathed, “I’m losing my mind.”

My heart flipped.

“I’m tired of pretending I don’t want you,” he continued softly. “I’m tired of watching every man in this building look at you knowing I can’t touch you.” His hand brushed my waist I wanted it to stay there. “And I’m tired of acting like I don’t see you trying to convince yourself you don’t feel the same.”

I swallowed hard, my voice barely there. “Lorenzo…”

He cupped my jaw, gently but firmly. “Just tell me. Do you want me to stop?”

And that was it.

The moment the wall between us cracked.

“I don’t want you to stop,” I whispered quietly thinking he didn’t hear but what he did next proved me wrong.

His entire body stilled, like the words froze him on the spot.

Then he kissed me.God it wasn’t a soft kiss.

It was weeks of tension, arguments, stolen glances, and suppressed desire finally snapping. His mouth claimed mine like he’d been starving for it. His hand slid to my lower back, pulling me closer, while my fingers caught his shirt, holding on like I needed him to survive.

When he finally pulled away, his breathing was uneven.

“I’m taking you home,” he said, voice thick with restraint.

I didn’t argue.

I didn’t want to.

The drive was silent but charged thick with tension and things we weren’t saying out loud. Every time our eyes met heat surged through me.

His home was exactly what I expected dark wood, warm lighting,expensive but not flashy. Private. Quiet. Intimate.

He locked the door behind us and it was just us.

He turned to me slowly,like he was fighting the urge to devour me right there.

“Sophia.” He said my name like it meant something. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

Something broke in his eyes a flicker of relief, hunger, something deeper than desire.

He stepped toward me, cupped my jaw, and kissed me again slower this time, deeper, like he wanted to commit to memory the shape of my mouth.

His hands found my waist,mine slid up his shoulders. My back hit the wall, and his lips trailed down my neck, warm and slow, leaving tingles in places I didn’t know could tingle.

A soft sound escaped me.

He froze for a second not to stop, but because the sound seemed to do something to him.

“Careful,” he murmured against my skin. “I might lose whatever control I have left.”

I made the same sound and whispered against his ear, “Maybe I don’t want you in control.”

A low groan escaped him quiet, but raw.

He lifted me effortlessly, placing me on the edge of the kitchen island. His body pressed between my legs, his hands gripping my hips with a gentleness that didn’t match the heat in his eyes.

“You’re going to end me,” he whispered, brushing his thumb across the heat and wetness pooling between my legs.

I smiled faintly. “You started it.”

He kissed me again slow, deep, hungry,his hand doing tricks inside me. The kind of kiss that bruised without hurting. The kind that left no doubt where this night was headed.

His hands slid up my thighs. Mine tugged his shirt, trying to pull him closer even though he was already pressed against me.

When we broke apart for air, he rested his forehead against mine.

“This is not just physical for me,” he said softly, almost like a confession he wasn’t supposed to make. “And it scares the hell out of me.”

I touched his cheek. “It scares me too.”

His eyes softened.

“Stay,” he murmured. “Just… stay with me tonight.”

I nodded,breathless. “Okay.”

And for the first time since I met him, Lorenzo’s expression broke not into a smirk, not into a command, but into something almost vulnerable.

He kissed me again.Slower this time.Deeper.

And that was how the night unfolded heat and softness, desire and tenderness, boundaries dissolving, tension snapping, the beginning of something neither of us could take back.

Something that would change everything.