E L A R A

I don’t knock right away, I just stand there like a coward with my hand raised, staring at the grain of his door like it’s going to blink first. My heart’s hammering so loud I think the whole hallway hears it. I shouldn’t be here, we were raw on that balcony, bleeding truth like we didn’t care if it scared us, but I do care, and I care too much.

When he said, “Can we try again,” it wasn’t smooth or planned, it was cracked. Like he didn’t know what he’d do if I said no, and the worst part? I didn’t say yes, I just walked away. Now I’m here, barefoot, trembling, and all I can think about is the way his voice shook when he said I made him feel human again. I knocked. One second. Two and then the  latch clicks.

A D R I A N

She’s the last person I expected and the only one I hoped for. Her eyes are glassy in the low light, but her chin doesn’t shake.

“Elara,” I say like a prayer and a question.

She exhales like she’s been holding that breath for hours. “If I come in… we don’t pretend it means nothing. Not this time.” I step aside.

“It never did.”

E L A R A

Everything in his room looks perfect and untouched. Nothing here’s ever fallen apart, except me. The door shuts behind me with a soft click and suddenly I’m hyper aware of every inch between us. He’s watching me like he’s afraid I’ll vanish again, like if he touches me wrong, I’ll shatter and I almost want to.

“I didn’t come here for a fix,” I say, voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t want to be another way for you to forget yourself.”

“You never were.”

He crosses the room slowly, stops just close enough that I feel his heat. Not touching, just… presence. “I tried to keep control, even when I had you in my arms, I told myself I could hold back. That I could make you feel safe without letting myself feel, too.”

His eyes drop to my mouth. “I don’t want that tonight.” Neither do I.

“I’m not afraid of you,” I whisper. “But if you are, this is where you walk away”

He lifts a hand, cups my cheek like I’m made of breath. “Terrified,” he admits. “But I’d rather be scared with you than numb without you.” My fingers curl in the hem of his shirt.

“Then don’t stop.”

A D R I A N

I kiss her like a man learning how, like I’ve been starved of softness and this is the first taste of something I didn’t earn. Her lips are warm, pliant, open, not just to me, but to this. Us. The impossible mess we keep crawling back to. Her hands find my shoulders, then my jaw, like she’s cataloging me with her fingertips. My body wants to rush, but this can’t be rushed. Not tonight, not when she’s giving me something real.

I back her slowly toward the bed, pausing every few steps to kiss her harder, deeper. Her mouth tastes like nerves and fire. When the backs of her knees hit the mattress, she sits without breaking the kiss, I kneel in front of her.

“Let me take my time with you,” I murmur, lips brushing her collarbone.

She nods, breath shallow. “Please.”

I peel her clothes away like unwrapping something sacred. Every inch of skin revealed is a revelation. Her chest rises fast, nipples peaking as the night air brushes her, I mouth each one slowly, sucking her until she arches with a gasp.

She cups the back of my head. “God, Adrian..”

“I’ve got you,” I whisper, dragging my tongue down her stomach, slow, reverent, and I mean it. All of it.

E L A R A

His mouth finds my thighs and I forget how to stay quiet, he spreads me with both hands, kisses the inside of each leg like it’s a vow. There’s no rush in him tonight, just focus like every lick is measured, every kiss deliberate. When his tongue flicks my clit, I flinch, a gasp punching out of me.

“Too much?” he asks, lips slick with me.

“No,” I breathe. “Not enough.”

He chuckles low, dark, then he gives me more. His tongue circles, then flattens, then sucks, each motion building pressure, coaxing sounds from me I’ve never made for anyone else. My hands claw the sheets, thighs shaking.

“Fuck, you taste like want,” he mutters, and then he’s back on me, relentless. A finger slides inside, then another, stretching me, stroking slowly.

“Adrian.. Adrian..”

He groans like my voice wrecks him, and that sound sends me over the edge. I come hard, thighs clamping around his head, spine arching. My cry breaks like a wave, raw and involuntary.

He rides it out, licking me through it, whispering, “That’s it. Let me feel you fall apart.” When I finally collapse back, trembling, he rises, shirt gone, eyes blown wide with hunger.

“Still with me?” he asks, voice hoarse.

“Completely,” I breathe. His kiss is slow, unhurried, and when I taste myself in his mouth, I don’t flinch. I burn for it.

A D R I A N

I don’t ask, I wait. Her hands move first, fisting in my waistband, tugging me toward the bed. I strip what’s left between us, and when I press her back against the sheets, she doesn’t flinch. She spreads her legs and wraps them around my hips like she’s done waiting for the world to make sense.

“I want to see you,” she says. “All of you.”

I reach down, stroke myself once, then guide the tip to her entrance. She’s soaked, hot, slick and ready. I push in slowly, holding her gaze the whole time. Her eyes flutter, mouth parting in a soft moan.

“God,” she breathes. “You feel…”

“Say it.”

“Full. Right. Like you belong there.”

I groan, burying to the hilt, the stretch of her voice around me. I don’t move yet, I just hold there, breathing against her mouth, giving her my weight inch by inch until she melts beneath me.

Then I start to move, slow thrusts, then deep and deliberate. Her fingers dig into my back as her breath comes faster, hips rising to meet mine. She gasps, then pants, then moans, until all that’s left is sound and sensation and the ache of needing more. I shift her leg over my shoulder, thrust deeper. Her eyes fly wide.

“There,” she cries. “Right there.. don’t stop.. ”

I don’t,  I give her everything, her climax hits hard, a full-body tremor. She breaks apart with a shout that echoes, back arched, legs shaking, and still I keep moving, pulling her through every wave of it.

She’s limp beneath me, glowing, gasping, laughing faintly in disbelief. “You didn’t come yet,” she whispers.

“Not done with you.”

I flip her gently, pull her astride me, guiding her onto my cock with both hands. She sinks down with a whimper.

“Elara.. Fuck.. you feel too good.”

She rides me slowly at first, dragging friction, grinding her clit against my stomach. Her eyes are locked on mine, open, unguarded. This isn’t performance, this is worship. I grip her hips, help her move faster, and her nails dig into my chest. I feel her start to pulse again, her cries going high and wild.

“I’m close,” she gasps.

“Come with me,” I growl, thrusting up into her.

We shatter together, my name rips out of her throat as she clamps down hard, and I spill into her with a groan I don’t try to bite back. I hold her there, trembling, her body locked around mine.

E L A R A

We don’t untangle right away, he pulls me against his chest, wraps me in his arms like I’m something breakable and sacred all at once. I feel his heartbeat still galloping beneath my cheek.

“You okay?” he murmurs, stroking my spine.

“Yeah,” I whisper. “I… think I needed that more than I knew.”

He kisses the top of my head. “That didn’t feel like just sex.”

“It wasn’t,” I say. “And it never really was, even when we tried to pretend.”

He exhales, like the admission costs him something. “I’m going to screw up again,” he says into my hair. “I’ll say the wrong thing, react too fast, freeze up when I should reach for you.”

“I know,” I whisper. “Me too. But… I don’t want to be perfect. I just want to be honest.”

He pulls back just enough to look at me, brushing a damp strand from my face. “Then I’ll give you that. I swear, Elara. No more masks.”

“Even when it’s messy?”

He nods. “Especially then.”

I believe him, not because it’s easy, but because tonight, for the first time, he didn’t just want me, but he wanted to be known, and I let him.

A D R I A N

She falls asleep in my arms,  her breath is soft against my chest, the sheets tangled around us like a truce we haven’t named yet, I should be letting this moment settle. Letting it mean something, but my phone buzzes on the nightstand. Once, then again.

I reach for it carefully, not waking her. The message has no name and no subject, just a file. When I open it, the air punches out of my lungs. Grainy images but clear enough, it’s Me and Elara, on the boardwalk, the stairs, right outside my suite. Her body against mine like it’s where she’s always belonged.

The last photo is of her slipping through my door. Time-stamped. Tagged. Tracked, and one line beneath it:

“You’re exposed. This isn’t over.”

My chest tightens. This isn’t surveillance. It’s a threat.