Clara stared at the empty plates, speechless. Three meager bites—that's all she'd managed before Sebastian Hartwell commandeered her meal like conquered territory. Is this man even human?
He paused at the staircase's curve, a marble statue come to life."Clean this disaster. Shower. Present yourself in my suite within twenty minutes." The order hung in the air like a guillotine blade.
Alone in the ravaged kitchen, Clara peeled a grocery-delivery banana with trembling fingers.Each bite tasted like lost opportunities:
She could've worked at top architecture firms or studied in L City. all sacrificed at the altar of misguided vengeance.She could've been designing skyscrapers, not scrubbing Hartwell's porcelain. Could've had a man who cherished rather than consumed her.
Enough. The banana peel hit the counter with finality. Time for tactical resistance.
In the master bedroom, Sebastian waited in charcoal silk pajamas, eyes glued to the door. Clara entered in a pink, long-sleeved bunny pajama set—ironically, the modesty only heightened her allure.
"Can we talk first?" she asked, biting her lip.
"After." He yanked her onto the bed, pinning her beneath him. His gaze burned with unbridled lust.
"Now." Defiance trembled in her voice.
He moved like lightning—silk whispering against muscle. Her back hit the mattress, his weight crushing her wrists. "What bargaining chips do you imagine possessing, Ms. Morgan?"
Molten obsidian eyes scanned her face. "Your roundhouse kick could fracture ribs," he murmured, thumb tracing her racing pulse. "Why withhold it now?"
"Prison stripes clash with my complexion."
His smile turned predatory. "Your loss." His kiss was rough, silencing her struggles. "Clothing, is treason in this room."
Midnight bled into the witching hour. Sebastian conducted her body like a maestro—every gasp a staccato note, every shudder a crescendo. When her nails scored his shoulders in agony, he whispered dark praise against her sweat-slicked temple.
At 1:07 AM, Clara shattered. "Please." The word dissolved into salt against his skin. "No more—"
Clara thought she'd perish. When she finally begged, he relented, leaving her trembling, lips swollen, neck marked with bruises.
"Can we talk now?" she whispered, voice hoarse.
Sebastian frowned. Money, no doubt.
An unfamiliar tightness seized his chest—hunger and something disturbingly akin to remorse.
"Speak," he commanded, turning toward the whiskey decanter.
"Tell me when you'll tire of me. Give me a deadline." Her eyes misted. "I need hope."
His face darkened. She wants to escape? "You think you deserve a say?"
Clara inched back, hitting the mattress edge. "I thought… after your investigation… you might see me as human." Tears carved paths through her flushed cheeks.
"My mistake. Livestock don't negotiate slaughter dates."
She turned away, shoulders shaking. Sebastian watched her back, gripped by unfamiliar irritation—and a twinge of guilt. He knew she was crying.
He moved without conscious thought—molding against her trembling spine. She braced for renewed assault. Instead, he kissed her tears.
Clara spun, confused.
"One year," he murmured, wiping her cheek.
"Don't lie."
His kiss was tender, lingering——whiskey yielding to something dangerously close to tenderness.
One year.
As her lashes fluttered closed in exhausted relief, Sebastian's fingers tightened in her hair. Deceiver, his conscience hissed. The woman who fractured his control wouldn't escape in three hundred sixty-five days. Not when he'd bind her with diamond manacles if necessary.
But tonight, he let her sleep—the architect of his hunger curled trustingly against the beast. Beyond the windows, dawn bled across the sky like an unhealed wound.
The chapter closes with both players believing they control the clock—a catastrophic mutual delusion.
Sebastian already knew nothing could hold this firefly forever, yet he'd built her a cage of gilded steel—a fresh forbidden territory, mapped beyond the Windsor family's iron-clad cage.
Clara's countdown to freedom had begun, unaware her jailer would sooner burn the calendar than honor it.