Ashley's POV:
"Because, Sunbeam," he whispered — a quiet blade of a voice honed on devotion and delusion — "this is what love is."
Love.The word landed like a petal on a grave.
Too soft.Too gentle.Too wrong.
It spread inside me like a bruise blooming under skin — dark, tender, a sick halo of pain pretending to be something sweet.
His grey eyes locked on mine, unblinking, as if he were waiting for me to finally catch up to his madness. I searched for it — a crack, a hairline tremor, the smallest confession that he didn't believe his own twisted gospel.
But there was nothing.No flicker.No shadow of doubt.
Just certainty — pristine and terrifying as fresh snow over a grave.
He meant every word.Every poisonous syllable.
And the ugliest part?Some small, exhausted shard of me — the part that had been cracked open and left in the cold too long — wanted to believe him. Wanted warmth. Wanted rest. Wanted anything that didn't feel like drowning in someone else's tide.
I drew a breath that trembled like a loose window in a storm—
BZZZT.
The vibration split the air.
Roman didn't flinch.Didn't blink.Just reached for the phone with the calm of a man adjusting his cufflinks. His other hand stayed on my thigh — warm, steady, proprietary.
A reminder.
A promise.
A cage.
"Speak."
One word.And the softness vanished from his tongue like it had never belonged there.
His voice turned metallic — cold, surgical, beautiful in the same way an executioner's blade gleams in morning light.
"They stalled?"
His attention snapped away from me without actually moving. He was looking through me now, like I was decor. Like I was the room's lighting, not a person with breath in her lungs.
His thumb stroked my knee — a touch that felt like an apology and a threat had decided to hold hands.
"The Tokyo acquisition is non-negotiable," he said, calm as a saint, deadly as a myth.
A pause.A tightening of his jaw, sharp enough to slice the moment open.
Then, softer — "If they won't sign with ink, make them sign with blood."
My pulse skittered.My lungs shrank.Ice water sluiced down my spine.
He felt it.He relished it.
"Send Leo." His thumb drifted higher."Find the CFO's wife. Don't touch her. Just… sit in her living room. Let him see how easy it is."
My vision speckled at the edges.He was re-creating the nightmare that tore my world apart, piece by trembling piece.
"And if he still hesitates?"
A smile unfurled on his lips — thin, elegant, carved from pure malice.
"Burn the warehouse. With the night shift inside."
The line went dead.He set his phone down like he'd just finished a grocery list.
Then he looked at me.
Really looked.
"Where were we?" he asked, gentle as dawn, reaching to tuck my hair behind my ear.
I flinched.Small. But enough.
I stepped back once, spine kissing the fridge's cold metal. It bit through my shirt, grounding me in a reality I didn't want.
Roman watched the movement like he was watching a child learn to walk — curious, patient, faintly amused.
"Roman," I whispered, my voice shaking, "you just ordered people to die. You threatened someone who has nothing to do with this. How can you do that and then—" my breath caught, "then act like you care about me?"
He didn't get angry.He got disappointed.
Like I had bungled a lesson he'd been teaching slowly, deliberately.
He moved toward me — slow, certain — until the fridge pressed hard against my back. His arm caged me in with quiet authority.
"That was business, Sunbeam. It has nothing to do with us."
"It has everything to do with us."The words cracked out of me."You can't carve yourself in half. You can't be pasta and pyromania. You can't be tender here and a monster out there."
His fingers caught my chin — not cruel, but immovable.
"I am both."The mask dropped, and I saw the creature underneath — ancient, patient, hungry."I burn the world so it stays quiet in here."
My throat tightened.
"Peace doesn't appear out of thin air," he murmured."I kill so you don't have to fear anyone else. I'm the monster so you don't meet worse."
"I never agreed to that," I breathed.
His eyes cooled to steel.
"You agreed the moment you ate my food. You take the warmth? Then you take the blood that paid for it."
He let go of my chin. Air returned like a mercy I didn't trust.
"We're going to bed."Final. Absolute."You'll sleep in my arms. And you'll stop pretending there's a version of tonight where you walk out that door."
I didn't even have time to react.
He lifted me like a sack of potatoes — graceless, effortless, humiliatingly easy.His strength didn't show off; it just was, the way gravity simply exists.He moved as though I weighed no more than a sigh, carrying me with a terrible, resigned familiarity — no strain, no hesitation, just the smooth momentum of a decision he'd made long before I ever opened my mouth to protest.
I didn't scream.I didn't fight.Not out of acceptance but because shock had scooped me hollow, leaving nothing behind but a stunned, trembling quiet where resistance should've lived.
Exhaustion filled the space.
He carried me upstairs.Laid me down like I was something precious.Stripped with the efficiency of a man removing a suit of armor.Slipped in beside me.
His arm curved around my waist — not tender, not harsh.Possessive.Anchoring.Inescapable.
"Sleep."
My heartbeat hammered against his ribs like it was trying to carve its way free.
Roman was warm.The world beyond him was ice.
But when I closed my eyes, all I saw were flames licking the sky.
____________________________________________________________________________
Author's Note:
If you made it to the end of this chapter, congratulations — you've survived Roman's CEO-meets-apocalypse energy and Sunbeam's Olympic-level internal panic sprint 🫡🔥.
I don't know who greenlit this man's decision-making process, but he's out here committing felonies between dinner courses like it's a wellness routine.
Meanwhile, our girl is just trying to keep her soul from leaving her body like a Windows XP shutdown noise.
The tension?
Fermented.
The vibes?
Concerning.
The plot?
Currently on fire, just like everything Roman touches 🔥🙂.
Buckle up for the next chapter — things are about to get even more "oh no" shaped.
-Vaanni🖤