Alicia's POV
"Going somewhere, Miss Blake?"
His voice sliced through the dark like a whip, low and razor-sharp, each word deliberate, measured. I froze mid-step, the strap of my bag cutting into my palm where I clutched it. The elevator door, gleaming like salvation, was only a few feet away. But Liam stood between me and freedom.
Slowly, I turned.
He leaned against the wall near his study door, half in shadow, half in the dim golden glow from the floor lamps. His suit jacket was gone, his white shirt unbuttoned at the collar, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He looked devastating, lethal like a man who had been waiting for this exact moment.
My heart pounded so loudly I thought he could hear it.
"I…." My voice cracked. I swallowed. "I was just… thirsty. I couldn't sleep."
His lips curved. Not a smile. Something darker.
"With a bag?"
My hand twitched. Damn. I hadn't thought to drop it. Slowly, I tried to shift it behind me, but his gaze followed the movement like a predator tracking prey.
"Bring it here." His voice held no room for argument.
My breath caught. If I obeyed, the lie would unravel in seconds. If I resisted…..
"Alicia." His tone sharpened, silk over steel. "Don't make me repeat myself."
Every instinct screamed to run. To dash for the elevator, to scream for Chloe waiting below. But Liam's eyes pinned me in place, cold fire burning in their depths.
My feet carried me forward against my will. I placed the bag on the console table between us, my fingers trembling.
He didn't reach for it immediately. Instead, he stepped closer, so close I had to tilt my chin up to meet his gaze. His scent…..smoke, cedar, expensive whiskey wrapped around me like chains.
"Open it," he ordered.
My lips parted. "Liam, please"
"Now."
The word cracked like a whip.
With shaking hands, I unzipped the bag. The contents spilled under the low light: a change of clothes, a small stash of cash Chloe had helped me gather, my passport. My shame and betrayal laid bare.
The silence stretched until it became unbearable. Then Liam laughed.
It wasn't a joyful sound. It was low, dark, incredulous like a wolf amused at its prey's pathetic attempt to escape.
"Planning a midnight getaway," he said softly, running a finger along the passport before picking it up. He flipped it open, studied my photo, then snapped it shut with a sharp clap and shred it into pieces.
"Without saying goodbye?"
Tears burned behind my eyes. "I had to….."
"You had to what?" His voice was deceptively calm, but I felt the storm beneath it. "Lie to me? Sneak out like a thief in the night? After everything I've given you?"
My chest heaved. "My mom is sick, Liam. My brother called me"
"And you think I don't know that?" he cut in, voice low and lethal. "Do you think there is a single piece of your life I haven't already uncovered? I know about your mother. I know about your brother's desperation. I know everything."
The room spun. "Then why...why won't you let me go to her?"
His eyes narrowed, glinting with dangerous intensity. He stepped closer until his breath brushed my cheek.
"Because the moment you walk out that door, Alicia, I lose control." His hand curled around the back of my neck, not harsh, but firm, possessive. "And I do not lose. Not to you. Not to anyone."
My tears spilled over. "You're suffocating me."
"And yet…" His thumb stroked the side of my throat, tracing the frantic pulse. "Your heart beats for me."
I shoved at his chest, desperation breaking through. "I don't belong to you"
He caught my wrists in one brutal movement, slamming them gently but firmly against the wall behind me. His body caged mine, towering, unyielding. His voice dropped to a whisper, intimate and terrifying.
"You belong to me more than you know."
I struggled, but his grip was iron. "You can't keep me here forever"
"Watch me."
The words were soft, deadly. His lips ghosted over mine, not quite kissing, a cruel taunt. "Do you have any idea how many women would kill to be where you are? In my bed. In my home. In my world?"
"I'm not them." My voice shook, but my defiance burned through the fear. "I never asked for this."
His eyes darkened, the calm shattering for the briefest second. Then he smiled, slow and dangerous.
"No. You didn't ask. But now you'll learn what happens when you try to run from me."
Before I could protest, he scooped me up effortlessly, slinging me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing. I gasped, kicking, but his arm locked around my thighs, unyielding. He carried me through the penthouse, ignoring my fists pounding against his back, and dumped me onto the bed.
I scrambled back, but he caught my ankle, dragging me toward him. His gaze blazed with fury and something darker—possession, obsession, desire twisted into punishment.
"You want freedom?" he said softly, dangerously. "Then earn it."
He loomed over me, every inch of him radiating control. His hand pinned mine above my head, his body pressing me into the mattress. The intimacy was suffocating, electrifying, terror and heat tangling in my veins until I couldn't tell them apart.
"Say it," he demanded, his lips a breath away from mine. "Say you belong to me."
Tears streaked my cheeks. I turned my face aside. "I can't."
His grip tightened. "Then I'll make you remember."
And he did. Every kiss was a test. Every touch, a punishment. Every moment, a reminder that no matter how fiercely I fought, he knew my body's betrayals, the way it trembled beneath him, the way it burned even as my heart screamed no.
By the time he finally released me, hours later, I was shaking, my throat raw from sobs and pleas I hadn't meant to give him. He kissed my tear-streaked face with infuriating tenderness, brushing damp hair from my forehead.
"You'll never leave me, Alicia," he whispered against my temple. "Because no one else will ever know you like I do."
He rose, his silhouette framed by the city lights beyond the window. He picked up the abandoned bag, the torn passport, the cash. One by one, he tossed them into the fireplace. Flames devoured them, reducing my fragile escape plan to ash.
I lay broken on the bed, chest heaving, unable to move.
He turned back, eyes dark and unreadable.
"Sleep," he said simply. "Tomorrow, we'll start again. But understand this, there will be no next time."
And then he left me there, shattered in the ruins of my own failure.