Chapter 342: Lockdown pt 2
One perfect evening, I found my time to escape.
I thought I was being clever.
Slipping barefoot across the cool marble, careful not to make the slightest sound as I reached for the door handle. My heart hammered, ridiculous adrenaline surging through me like I was breaking out of prison instead of Kael Roman’s overprotective lockdown.
But before my fingers even brushed the handle, that low voice came from behind me.
"Where do you think you’re going?"
I froze, spine stiffening. Slowly, I turned my head. There he was... leaned against the wall, arms crossed, eyes dark as sin. Watching me like a predator who’d already won.
I pasted on my most innocent smile. "Just... fresh air."
"Fresh air," he repeated, pushing off the wall. His steps were unhurried, deliberate. Menace wrapped in his usual black tee and grey sweatpants. "You know what happens to little rebels who try to escape?"
I swallowed, but my pride wouldn’t let me cave. Not yet. "They... succeed?"
His lips curved, dangerous. "Wrong. They get tied to the bed."
Heat shot up my face, but I refused to show it. I took a step back, chin high. "You wouldn’t dare."
His brows lifted. "Try me."
And then it began... the cat and mouse chase.
I darted toward the balcony, laughing as he followed, his strides longer, faster, eating up the space between us. I twisted, weaving past him, bare feet flying across the floor, my lungs burning in the best way. God, I had forgotten what it felt like to move like this... like my body was mine again, not weighed down by weakness, not hollowed by grief.
But the thought snagged me mid-step. The miscarriage. The nights of exhaustion. The constant fear of breaking that I tried hard not to think about. For a heartbeat, the memory dragged me under, my focus slipping.
And that was all it took.
One second, I was running. The next, my world tilted... my feet gone from the ground.
I gasped, instinctively grabbing at his shoulders as Kael hoisted me off the floor with maddening ease, his hands gripping me like they’d done this a million times... which... true. He smirked up at me, green eyes burning, my legs dangling uselessly.
"Caught you," he murmured, voice rough with both triumph and something else entirely.
"Kael... "
"You really think I’d let you escape me?" His voice was low, teasing, but the glint in his eyes was all hunger.
I thrashed half-heartedly, fists pressing against his chest. "I’ve had enough of you treating me like an ailing Grandma. Put me down you lunatic!"
"I am." His tone was a promise and a threat all at once. "On the bed. Where you belong."
And then he was lowering me onto the sheets, slow, deliberate, like claiming territory. My back hit the mattress, my hair spilling out wild around me. He loomed above, shadows clinging to him, heat radiating off every inch of his body.
A whole month of Kael holding back. Of me pretending I wasn’t aching almost every night.
I should have been terrified of what came next. Instead, I was trembling with anticipation.
"Aria..." He said my name like it was a prayer and a curse. His weight pressed me down, one hand pinning mine above my head, the other sliding along my waist. "Do you have any idea what you’ve done to me? What you’re doing to me? Weeks, I’ve held back. Weeks."
I swallowed hard, my heart hammering. "Maybe I want you like this."
His eyes burned into mine, green and dark and endless. He let out a ragged laugh, low and dangerous. "Careful. Because if you keep talking like that, I won’t stop until you can’t walk tomorrow."
"Oh really?"
Heat coiled low in my stomach, sharp and sweet. I arched against him, testing the steel of his body against mine, and his groan vibrated straight through my chest.
"You know I’m not nice Aria."
His mouth crashed onto mine, hungry, desperate, claiming. Every kiss was punishment for the weeks he hadn’t touched me, every stroke of his tongue a demand for more. My hands tugged at his hair, pulling him closer, impossibly closer, until there was no space left between us.
I gasped when his teeth grazed my throat, his lips trailing fire down to my collarbone. "Kael... "
He hushed me with another bruising kiss. "I warned you," he growled against my mouth. "I said if I carried you to this bed, I wasn’t letting you go again."
And God help me... I didn’t want him to.
I could feel him breaking. Every kiss, every touch, every time his hands tightened around my waist like he was holding back from wrecking me... it was Kael on the edge of madness.
And then he pulled back. His lips hovering just above mine, his breathing ragged, his eyes blazing.
"I don’t..." His voice cracked like he hated himself. "I don’t know if you’re ready for this. I can’t risk hurting you."
God, the way he said it... like I was made of glass. It made my chest squeeze painfully, but it also made my thighs clench with frustration. I wanted him. I’d been wanting him for weeks.
If only he knew how I’d already confirmed it... how I’d cornered Ash when she visited again, demanded answers, listened to the doctors through a phone line as they asked me every embarrassing question until they finally said yes, I was fine. But telling Kael now? That would ruin it. I didn’t want words. I wanted him.
So when he hesitated, I didn’t.
I pressed into him harder, sliding my hands across his torso as I kissed him with everything in me, then shifted my body until I was straddling him fully. His breath caught, a sharp sound that went straight to my core, and I leaned back slightly, bracing my hands on his chest. His green eyes nearly undid me... wild, desperate, pleading.
And oh, the way his dick strained beneath me. I felt it. Awake, hard, terrifying, pushing against me through his pants, making my stomach twist with hunger.
"Maybe you’re right," I whispered, feigning nonchalance even as my lips tingled and my body ached. And I started to slide off his lap.
His hand shot out, gripping my hip so hard I gasped.
I snickered down at him, triumphant, and his eyes narrowed dangerously. Then he was the one moving, dragging me back onto him, his hands locking on my waist as he shifted beneath me... grinding up into me so deep and hard my vision blurred.
"Kael... " The moan ripped from my throat before I could stop it.
He groaned low in response, his forehead pressed to mine, his jaw clenched like he was barely keeping himself together. "Aria," he breathed, grinding up again, harder this time. The friction was unbearable, my panties soaked, the sound obscene even through the thin fabric.
I couldn’t stop myself, couldn’t think past the heat tearing me open. I rocked against him, shameless, grinding down on his lap like I was starving for him.
His grip on me tightened until it bordered on bruising. "Are you sure?" His voice was a growl, dark, guttural, the kind of sound that could unravel me.
And I nodded desperately, chasing the friction, grinding harder, my body betraying me with every slick, needy sound between us.
"Please, Kael..."