Alicia's POV
The first thing I noticed was the quiet.
Not the kind of silence that filled my tiny apartment, empty and cold, but the hush of a penthouse perched above the city soft, insulated, as if the world itself dared not intrude here.
The second thing I noticed was him.
Liam Knight wasn't supposed to look like this. He was supposed to be the man in control, tailored in power, commanding boardrooms and bodies with the same ruthless precision. But here, stretched out beside me, the sheets tangled at his waist, he looked… undone.
His chest rose and fell with a slow rhythm. His jaw, usually a blade of authority, had softened in sleep. One of his hands rested loosely against my hip, possessive even in unconsciousness. My body was still sore, still humming from the brutal tenderness of last night, and the memory made me shiver.
I should have moved. I should have slipped out from under his arm and found my clothes, my sanity. But I stayed.
Because some traitorous part of me wanted to memorize this version of him, the rare softness, the man who could be gentle if only for a breath in time.
I turned carefully, watching the early light spill across his face. The city stretched out in glittering silence beyond the glass walls, but all I could see was him.
And then his eyes opened.
Steel-gray, awake instantly, sharp even in the softness of morning. For a moment, neither of us moved. His gaze swept over me, lingering at the way the sheet barely covered my bare skin, then settled on my face.
"You stayed," he said, voice rough with sleep.
Heat rushed through me. "I… fell asleep."
A faint smirk curved his lips, slow and devastating. "That's not a complaint."
He shifted, pulling me against him with a lazy strength that belied how deliberate it was. His arm wrapped tighter around my waist, anchoring me there. I felt the warmth of his body seep into mine, the steady thud of his heartbeat against my back.
For a few fragile seconds, it almost felt normal. Like waking up next to a man who wanted me, not a man who consumed me.
Then he ruined it, as Liam always did, with words that cut too deep.
"You look better here," he murmured into my hair. "In my bed. Where you belong."
A tremor ran through me, equal parts fear and something dangerously close to desire.
"Don't say things like that," I whispered, more to myself than to him.
"Why not?" He tipped my chin up with his fingers, forcing me to meet his gaze. His eyes were unreadable, a storm I could never chart. "You're mine, Alicia. Even if you don't admit it yet."
He keeps laying claim on me!
I am not a commodity, I'm human.
My breath caught. My thighs clenched instinctively. God, why did those words make me feel as if gravity had shifted under me?
Before I could answer, he was already moving, rising from the bed with the fluid grace of a predator. God! I love the way he stood up. He pulled on a pair of loose black lounge pants, his muscles rippling with each step, and disappeared toward the kitchen.
For a moment, I lay frozen, trying to remember why I ever thought I could resist him.
Liam is like an air, which i can't resist not to breathe.
When I finally followed, still wrapped in his sheet like some fragile shield, I found him barefoot at the stove. Cooking.
The sight was so surreal it almost made me laugh. Liam Knight, billionaire CEO, breaker of hearts and bodies, cracking eggs into a pan like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"You can cook?" I asked, incredulous.
He glanced over his shoulder, that same dangerous smirk tugging at his mouth. "I can do many things you don't expect, Miss Blake."
The way he said it made heat coil low in my stomach.
I perched carefully on one of the stools at the marble counter, clutching the sheet tighter around me. He slid a plate toward me minutes later, perfectly cooked eggs and toast. Simple, but it felt like an intimacy I hadn't been prepared for.
I ate quietly, trying not to watch the way he leaned against the counter across from me, arms folded, eyes never leaving me. His gaze was too heavy, too much. Like he was already undressing me again without moving a muscle.
Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. "Why are you being… like this?"
"Like what?" His tone was amused, but his eyes were sharp.
"Soft. Almost…" I searched for the word, hating myself for even thinking it. "…romantic."
He set his glass down with deliberate care. "Don't mistake me, Alicia. This isn't softness. This is possession. When I want you, I take you. When I keep you, I feed you. You're mine to ruin and mine to care for."
The words should have terrified me. Instead, they slid under my skin like fire.
He pushed off the counter, coming closer. His fingers brushed my cheek, deceptively tender. "Whatever last night unlocked in you, it doesn't end here. Tonight, you'll see what it really means to belong to me."
My pulse thundered. I wanted to demand what he meant, to tell him no, to run, but instead, I found myself leaning into his touch.
And that was the most dangerous part of all.
Liam's POV
She thought I was softer this morning.
I saw it in the way her eyes lingered on me, wide and hesitant, as if she was seeing a side of me no one else knew. As if she'd stumbled into something private, something forbidden.
Let her think that.
It amused me, how quickly she forgot last night's screams, how easily the human mind clings to any flicker of tenderness. I wasn't soft. I was calculating. Every touch, every smirk, every goddamn egg cracked into that pan was deliberate.
Because I wanted her to fall. Not into bed, that part was inevitable. I wanted her to fall into me. To need me in a way she wouldn't know how to escape.
And she was close. So close I could almost taste it.
When I watched her sitting at my counter, wrapped in my sheet, eating the breakfast I made for her, I felt something stir in me I hadn't felt in years. A dangerous itch. Something that wasn't just lust.
Ownership!
I crossed the space between us, touching her cheek just to see if she'd flinch. She didn't. She leaned in. Brave little Alicia, pretending she wasn't already tethered.
I bent down, brushing my lips against her ear. "Tonight, you'll see what it really means to belong to me."
She shivered, her breath hitching, her body betraying her even as her mind rebelled. I loved that tension. Loved watching her fight herself.
Because the truth was simple. She belonged to me.
I owned her.
And tonight, I would make sure she never forgot about it. Because every part of her body belongs to me and me only.