The Heat after the Hate.
Rated 18+ 🔞
Warning:
This book contains mature and explicit romance content. For 18+ readers only.
Copyright:
This is a work of fiction. Do not copy, reproduce, or steal. All rights reserved by the author.🔕
The moment Eva stepped through the door, she felt it, the air was thick, electric, a storm brewing in the stillness.
Damian's gaze locked on her instantly, sharp and unblinking, like a predator who'd been waiting for its prey to wander in.
For a heartbeat, she wanted to shrink, to let that look crush her into silence. But then, Seraphina's lips on him flashed through her mind, that smug tilt of her head, and something inside Eva snapped.
Her chin rose in defiance.
Her stride was deliberate.
She walked past Damian without so much as a glance, treating him like air, like he was nothing.
Damian's breath caught.
'Did she just...?'
"You've got to be kidding me," he muttered, rage rippling through him. "She just walked past me, after everything she's done? You have a death wish, Eva."
He was moving before the thought was finished, his footsteps like gunfire against the floor.
Eva had barely set her purse on the bed when_
BANG!
The door slammed open so hard it rattled on its hinges.
Damian was there, filling the doorway like a thundercloud ready to burst.
"Explain," he bit out, each word coated with steel. "Explain what the hell you did at the party today, Eva Myles!"
Eva blinked, feeling the beginnings of a headache press against her skull. Another storm...
She sniffed, she seemed a little feverish already from the cold outside, she was dressed for the party earlier, all class and vibe, and less conservative, she didn't envisage any of what happened later.
She had to stay out late to clear her head while still wearing her evening gown, now she seemed to have caught a slight cold, as she sniffed.
"How dare you?" Damian's voice climbed. "How dare you embarrass me like that? Do you realize you are my wife now? Or do you think that certificate was a joke? Do I look like a joke to you?" His tone sharpened, the anger barely leashed. "How dare you kiss a man in public, in front of me? Are you courting death?"
Eva's eyes slid away, deliberately, her silence a provocation.
"I'm talking to you, Eva! Don't test me or else_"
"_Or else what?" she cut in, her voice low but edged. "What are you going to do?"
Damian stared at her, stunned that she'd dare throw the challenge back at him.
"Are you out of your mind? Talking to me like that? And in that tone?" His jaw tightened, venom in his tone. "I don't blame you, I blame myself for marrying a slut like you."
Her head snapped toward him. "Really? Then set me free! Let's get a divorce then! After all, I never wanted any of this!" she yelled, and something in Damian cracked.
Eric's words came rushing back, taunting him, telling him he forced women who felt nothing for him to stay. He'd brushed it off then, but hearing it from her lips? It cut deep.
"Say that again, Eva Myles," he growled, stepping closer, "and you'll see a side of me you'll wish you'd never awakened. How dare you talk to me like that?"
"I'll talk to you however I damn well please if you dare call me a slut again!" She fired back with her puffed cheek, looking really pissed as well.
"Oh yeah? Aren't you one? A married woman grinding on another man, kissing him like some sex-starved harlot,"
Eva's lips curled into a smirk that didn't reach her eyes. "Really? And what about you? A married man kissing some bitch in public?"
"I wasn't kissing her, she kissed me!"
"I wasn't kissing either, he kissed me! So instead of spitting insults at me, maybe you should focus on your girlfriend."
Damian froze. "What girlfriend is she talking about?" he asked, the word dripping disdain.
"Who else?" Eva shot back. "Seraphina Blake of course, your precious childhood sweetheart."
His expression darkened. "There is nothing between Seraphina and me. So shut. The hell. Up."
Eva's voice trembled, not from fear, but from the sheer force of her fury.
"So I look stupid to you, Damian Lopez? I saw you two! Just the other day, you were about to make out right in front of me! And then you took her into your bedroom and had sex with her. And now you stand here, lying to my face!"
Her words hit like whiplash.
Damian stiffened. She wasn't wrong about that day. But the truth, that he'd done it to provoke her, that he hadn't actually slept with Seraphina, felt far too tangled and pathetic to explain.
"I didn't sleep with her!" he barked.
Eva's laugh was sharp and cold. "Liar! You did and you know it! So who's the real slut here, Damian? Not me, you!"
His eyes flared. "Oh, really? That's the card you're going to play? Then tell me, what were you doing in a hotel room with a naked man? Go on, explain that to me!"
Her breath hitched, but she stood her ground. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"The hell you don't," Damian shot back, his voice like fire. "I saw you."
"I went to him to ask for money for my mother's surgery," she snapped, her voice breaking. "He said to meet him at a hotel. I didn't know why he wasn't dressed, and the second he tried to touch me, I left. And you know damn well he never laid a hand on me on that day."
"Oh, I don't know that."
"Yes, you do!" Eva's voice cracked, trembling now from emotion. "Because if he had touched me, you wouldn't have met me a virgin."
The word hit him like a bullet. Virginity.
And with it came the rush, raw, unfiltered memories he fought to keep buried. The heat of that night. The softness of her body, her moans. The way her eyes had looked, half shy, half surrender, when he'd first touched her.
Images cascaded through his mind, dizzying him. His breath faltered. His pupils dilated.
"Shut up," he growled, the sound thick and uneven.
"No, I won't!" Eva's tears fell freely now, hot trails against flushed cheeks. "You don't get to call me a slut and expect me to stay quiet! You have no idea what I've been through. Unlike you who's always has it easy with life, its different from my end, life... life has never been kind to me, Damian, I've been through hell and back. But through it all, I never let anyone touch me. I never sold my body for anything! Until you. And you," her voice cracked, "You had the guts to call me a slut?"
"I said shut up!" His tone was desperate now, not just angry.
"No!" She jabbed a finger hard into his chest, fire in her eyes. "You are not a good man, and I don't like you..."
She didn't finish.
Damian's mouth crashed against hers, fierce and unyielding, swallowing the rest of her words.
The moment he touched her, Eva felt like a jolt of electric current suddenly bust through her vein, causing her to freeze for half a second, then melted, utterly, completely, her eyelids fluttering shut as if her body had betrayed her. Her hands went slack at her sides, her knees threatening to give way if not for the Damian iron grip holding her steady.
Damian pulled back just enough for their lips to barely part, his breath scorching against her mouth.
"Say that again, Eva Myles," he murmured, his voice low and dangerous. "Say you don't like me again."
The air between them burned. Eva's mind was a haze of heat, the proximity of him drowning her in sensations she didn't want to admit she still craved.
Damian couldn't believe what one kiss, just one, had done to his firecracker of a wife. It was as if his lips had doused her in molten heat, turning her into something soft, yielding, and desperately alive before him. The transformation was intoxicating, It was like pouring cold water on hot coal.
The way everything in her responded to his touch, God. It almost made him feel like she loved him. Not just loved, but perhaps, deeply loved him.
Her lips were parted now, trembling slightly as if they were begging, no, pleading, for another taste. Her lashes fluttered against flushed cheeks like delicate wings, her gaze unsteady, her breath breaking into short, erratic bursts. She looked devastatingly tempting, so much so that it almost felt unreal.
And when he felt the ache straining in his trousers, hard and insistent, his control faltered.
He closed the space between them, his voice dropping to a dark, velvety whisper.
"You are my wife Eva, and you have to like me. You must like me Eva" he said with a soft intoxicating voice as his sexy fingers stroked her face like a rhythm. "You know why? Because you're mine now, and every piece of you belongs to me."
He brushed a feather-light kiss over her closed lids. "Your eyes..."
Another kiss on the slope of her nose. "Your nose..."
And finally, his mouth hovered over hers, teasing, barely touching. "And these lips..." he claimed them slowly, savoring her taste "_no one is allowed to touch them except me. No one, Eva. Because you're my Eva Lopez."
His fingers slid into her hair, gripping just enough to pull her closer until she was flush against him. The kiss deepened, turned messy, consuming, and she kissed him back with the same desperate hunger, her body trembling so badly her knees almost gave out.
Without breaking the kiss, Damian scooped her up, cradling her against his chest, and lowered her gently onto the bed.
"Did you hear me, Eva Lopez?" His lips brushed the shell of her ear, his voice a low growl that sent shivers down her spine. "You're mine. Do you understand?"
Her voice was breathless, barely a whisper. "Y-yes..." She didn't even know if she meant it, only that her body seemed to answer for her, and that answer made something primal flare in Damian's chest.
His mouth was on hers again, hotter, rougher this time. His hands roamed over her like he was memorizing every inch, peeling away her clothes with slow precision, each inch of newly exposed skin met with a reverent touch.
Eva's own hands moved feverishly over him, her touch searing through the thin barrier of his clothes exploring, gripping, with desperate urgency. Her hips shifted, writhed and squirmed, restlessly beneath him as her fingers found the edge of his zipper. With shaky urgency, she tugged at it. Eva's hands roamed over him and Damian broke the kiss making his breath hitch in raw wonder
God, she is sweet. He had never felt like this before, like she was sugar on his tongue, fire in his veins, and danger in his heart all at once. She was so sweet it was maddening, dangerously sweet he swore she could ruin him.