Seven days.
She'd given him a timeline. A ticking bomb. And now, every second felt louder. Hungrier.
Kai stood shirtless at the window of his high-rise apartment, the city glittering behind him like a million promises he could never make. He hadn't moved since she fell asleep again, curled up on the bed with nothing but his shirt drowning her frame. He could hear her heartbeat from across the room. Slow. Dreamy. Tempting.
He was obsessed.
And he hated how true it felt.
Back in the bed, Alexis stirred. Her legs stretched into the warm sheets, her fingers brushing the space beside her. Empty. Her brows furrowed.
"Watching me again?" she asked, her voice a raspy blend of sleep and sass.
Kai didn't move. "You gave me seven days. I don't plan on wasting a second."
She sat up, tousled and wild-haired, the kind of beautiful that made it hard to breathe. Not that he needed to.
"Then don't waste them," she said, rising from the bed and walking toward him. "What's first on your sinful little agenda?"
He turned to face her. His eyes were unreadable.
"Breakfast," he said. "Then Paris."
Her brows shot up. "Paris?"
"I promised you everything."
She blinked, surprised. "You have a private jet?"
He smirked. "Something like that."
Paris was foggy and romantic and far too quiet for the way he kissed her under the Eiffel Tower. Tourists milled about, but Kai's presence had a way of creating invisible walls. People kept their distance. They always did.
He bought her a red silk dress from a designer boutique without even asking her size. Of course, it fit perfectly. He knew her body better than she did by now.
She laughed when he made her twirl in the empty hallway of the penthouse suite. And he couldn't take his eyes off her. Not for a second.
They ate strawberries and dark chocolate on a rooftop garden overlooking the Seine. She teased him by licking the juice from her fingers, one by one, as if she didn't know exactly what she was doing.
He leaned in close, voice a rasp. "Do that again and I won't wait until we're back in the suite."
"Maybe I don't want you to wait," she whispered back.
He didn't.
He kissed her there on the rooftop, tongue claiming hers, fingers in her hair, until a waiter coughed awkwardly nearby.
Back at the suite, she didn't even ask how he got it on such short notice. She just let him ruin her.
He backed her against the mirrored wall, his mouth trailing fire along her neck. She gasped as he bit just enough to make her tremble but not enough to bleed.
He tore the dress like it was tissue.
She was bare and breathless in seconds.
Then he lifted her with one arm, sliding inside her before she could say a word.
She moaned, head falling back against the mirror, nails scratching down his back.
He didn't let her down until her legs were shaking, her body limp in his arms. Even then, he didn't stop. He carried her to the bed and started again.
He didn't stop until the moon was high above Paris and she couldn't remember her own name.
That night, he held her in bed, his fingers tangled in her red hair, silent. She could feel the tension building in him, but he said nothing.
So she did.
"You know this ends in six days, right?"
His jaw tightened. "You think I'll let you leave?"
She turned her head on the pillow, facing him. "That was the deal. And you agreed."
He didn't blink. "I lied."
She sighed, her chest aching in a way that had nothing to do with his weight or touch. She knew she was falling for something she couldn't afford to want. But this? This seven-day illusion? It was the only way she could pretend she was still in control.
She reached for his hand, brought it to her lips, kissed it softly.
"Then you better lie well."
Because she already knew the truth:
She wouldn't survive day eight either.
Morning came with golden light filtering into the suite, bathing their skin in soft warmth. Alexis woke first this time. She rolled over slowly, her muscles deliciously sore, her lips still tingling from the night before.
She reached for her phone, almost out of instinct. The screen blinked to life.
Departure in 6 days.
Her chest tightened.
She hadn't imagined it. The flight. The ticking clock.
She turned to Kai, who was already watching her.
"You don't sleep, do you?" she whispered.
He shrugged. "I don't need to. Not when I have you to watch."
She rolled her eyes but couldn't hide her smile.
"I want to show you something," he said, rising from the bed like sin incarnate. "Something only a few humans have ever seen."
She sat up, brows raised. "And why me?"
He smirked. "Because you're not just anyone, Alexis. You're the girl who said no to a vampire prince and made him say yes."
And that was how day two of seven began.
With secrets. And sex. And the quiet promise that everything was about to change.