NO ONE RUNS AWAY FROM ME.
740 Words
ARIUS’ POV
I woke up to silence.
The kind of silence that gnaws at you, pressing into your ears until you realize what’s missing. Her voice. Her breathing. Her warmth.
The space beside me was empty, sheets pulled back, already cool.
I pushed myself up on one elbow, scanning the room. The hotel suite looked almost untouched except for the tangled sheets and the faint trace of her perfume. Sweet. Subtle. Something that clung to my skin and wouldn’t let go.
But her? She was gone.
I swung my legs off the bed, rubbing a hand over my face. I wasn’t surprised, not really. Women slip away in the morning all the time. They usually leave something behind though—a lipstick, an earring, a shoe if they’re drunk enough. Something to make me remember them.
Not her.
My eyes darted to the floor, the dresser, the bathroom door left half-open. Nothing. No purse, no jacket, no trace of her except the lingering memory of last night. Blonde hair spilling across my chest. Lips soft, trembling, but hungry. Her body tight around me, like she’d never been touched like that before.
I wasn’t the type to get stuck in the past, but damn if she didn’t brand herself into my mind.
I stood, stretching, then bent to grab my pants. My shirt was draped carelessly over a chair. I pulled it on slowly, still scanning the suite. Something was off.
That’s when I saw it.
A small rectangle, half-hidden under the edge of the rug near the bed.
I crouched, plucking it up between my fingers. A card. White, clean, professional. Not an ID.
A business card.
My lips curved into a grin before I even finished reading.
Katherine Sawyer.
The name felt right in my mouth. Smooth. Almost too innocent for the kind of girl who gave herself to me last night, yet somehow perfect.
I read on. Twenty-four years old. College graduate. A number printed in bold black.
She had left me nothing to remember her by—nothing but this.
And it was enough.
I sat on the edge of the bed, turning the card over in my fingers. I didn’t usually care who they were. Women were a distraction, a night to burn off tension. I never wanted to know their names. But this one? Katherine.
Blonde. Pretty. Innocent.
And mine.
The thought slithered in, uninvited, and I didn’t fight it.
I wanted her again.
Not just once. Not just to sate the hunger she stirred in me. Over and over. Until she couldn’t think of anyone else but me. Until every part of her answered only to me.
I chuckled under my breath, dragging a hand through my hair. Dangerous. This was dangerous thinking. I wasn’t the kind of man who got attached. Attachment was weakness, and weakness had no place in my world.
But hell… her wide eyes when I kissed her throat, the way her body shivered beneath mine… she wasn’t like the others.
I slipped into my trousers, buckling my belt, then reached for my phone on the nightstand.
One card. One name. One number. That was all I needed.
I scrolled to the contact I wanted and hit dial.
“Sir?” My assistant’s voice came quick, alert, even though it was barely past morning.
“I’ll be sending you something,” I said, leaning back against the headboard. My voice was calm, deliberate. I wasn’t about to let him hear the flicker of obsession crawling under my skin. “A card. Name on it is Katherine Sawyer. Twenty-four. Graduate. There’s a number. I want everything.”
“Everything?” he asked carefully.
“Everything,” I repeated. “Where she lives. What she does. Who her family is. Where she goes in the morning. What time she sleeps. Everything. And I want it fast.”
There was a pause. “Yes, sir.”
I ended the call without another word, tossing the phone beside me.
The card was still between my fingers, edges pressing into my skin. I stared at her name again. Katherine Sawyer.
Last night she had left thinking she could disappear. Thinking she could be just another body tangled in my sheets.
She was wrong.
A slow smile spread across my lips, sharp and hungry.
Because now I had her name.
And I wasn’t done with her yet.
No one runs that far away from. ARIUS SALVADOR…
- Writer
