- Published
AURORA
I couldn’t remember exactly when the air grew so heavy between us. Maybe it had been during that lingering look in the hallway, or in the way Adrian murmured my name as if he were testing its texture on his tongue. Maybe it had started earlier, at some secret point I couldn’t locate—I only knew that, by the time I realized it, the world seemed to have slipped off its axis.
Hours had passed.
I barely remembered leaving the company.
I only remembered following.
And now I was there.
A spacious, silent room in a luxurious motel, bathed in that golden light that made everything look like a dream happening far too slowly.
I was naked, my skin far too warm for someone who was always cold.
Adrian’s large hands held my waist, firm, as if they had been made to fit around it. Thick, prominent veins ran up his forearm, pulsing in a way that made something strange vibrate inside me—not fear, but not calm either.
Something in between.
That thing my mind had always searched for in mystery novels: the suspense of the unknown.
His mouth brushed my neck.
Slow. Controlled.
He didn’t kiss like men his age. He kissed like someone who had learned to savor time.
His warm tongue passed just above my vital vein, a soft, damp touch, and I felt my stomach drop as if I were in free fall. My heart pounded too hard, so hard I was almost certain he could hear every pulse, distinguish every beat.
“You’re…” I tried, but my voice failed.
He laughed softly against my skin.
“Nervous?” he asked, as if he’d known the answer for years.
“Confused,” I corrected, drawing a deep breath. “I…I don’t even know how I ended up here.”
He lifted his face, his nose almost brushing mine.
His eyes…God. Those eyes weren’t normal. They had an intensity that seemed to pierce straight through me without hurting. As if he were searching for something hidden at the bottom of my soul.
“You came because you wanted to,” Adrian murmured, his voice far too deep, far too soft, far too dangerous. “I didn’t ask for anything. I just…let you feel.”
Feel.
That was exactly what it was.
I let myself be carried away by the mystery.
By the way he looked at me, as if he were seeing something I couldn’t see myself.
And also by the way he touched me.
His hands moved slowly up my waist, as if memorizing every inch of my skin. He turned me carefully, pulling me closer, his warm breath against my ear. I felt my entire body shiver.
This man wasn’t normal.
But, in a way, I didn’t want him to be.
I’d always thought I’d fall in love with someone predictable, someone safe, someone ordinary. And yet, there I was…naked in the arms of a practically untouchable CEO, full of mysteries I wanted to unwrap like a forbidden gift.
“Adrian…” I whispered, not entirely sure what I meant.
He held my face gently, his large fingers tracing my jaw.
“Tell me, little one.”
Little one.
The nickname hit something inside me.
I pulled him closer without realizing it, guided by a courage I didn’t know where I’d found. Maybe it was the way he looked at me—that look that seemed to say, “You have no idea what you do to me.” Maybe it was the heat of his body pressed against mine. Or the mystery pulsing between us like a secret too dangerous to tell.
Adrian lowered his mouth to my neck again, this time slower, lingering longer.
I let out an involuntary sigh that made me regret it immediately—because he smiled against my skin, a satisfied, dangerous smile appearing on his lips.
“Your heart is racing,” he whispered.
“You’d go through this too if you were in my situation,” I replied, my voice trembling, though a faint smile tugged at my lips.
He raised his face, studying me for seconds that felt like hours.
“Perhaps,” he murmured. “Or perhaps you have no idea what you are starting.”
I felt a shiver run down my spine.
But I didn’t back away.
My body was literally in his hands.
But the choice to stay…that was mine alone.
“Then show me,” I said, surprising even myself.
“Show you?” He tilted his head, studying me with an interest that burned. “You are not afraid?”
I swallowed hard.
“I am.”
He smiled. Slowly. Dangerously. Indecently.
“Excellent.”
And before I could think, reflect, or reconsider, Adrian pulled me closer, pressing our bodies together and placing me completely under his hands. His lips returned to my neck, but now something was different—some electric tension, as if he were trying to hold himself back.
As if he were hungry.
I didn’t know for what.
And I didn’t ask.
I was far too lost in the sensation, the shiver, the heat, the mystery of him wrapping around me like smoke—thick, seductive, impossible to escape.
I didn’t know what would happen after that night.
I only knew I had crossed an invisible line.
And Adrian…
Adrian was smiling like someone who had waited ages for this exact moment.