TESSA'S POVSunlight streamed through the huge window panes of our house onto the invitations laid across the dining table. I sat with a pen in hand, writing down final guest names, while Aiden leaned against the counter sipping his coffee."We could just elope, you know," he joked, the corner of one lip tugging upwards with a mischievous smirk.I turned a mock glare his way. "After all this planning? Not in your life, Aiden GRAY. We're doing this properly."He laughed, setting his mug down as he ambled over to me. "Properly, huh? That's why you've been vetoing half my suggestions?""You wanted a firework display during the vows!" I reminded him, laughing.“And what’s wrong with that? It would’ve been epic.” He leaned down, pressing a kiss to my temple. “But fine, no fireworks. As long as you’re there, it’ll be perfect.”It was what he said that always made my heart flutter, and the words this time were not an exception. It was one of those weddings that put me into anticipation and j
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," my father had always ranged these words into my ears. Now, sitting on the edge of my bed and staring at the poster of the words, with the worst hangover of the year, I realized fear had been holding me back—from breaking up with Damien, from breaking free from all the restrictions around me, from having the best night of my life with a stranger.As I wallowed in my thoughts and hangover, my phone broke the silence. "Tessa!!!" I lifted the phone from my ear with swift speed. "Are you insane? Where are you?""At home, Chloe," I said nonchalantly. "And why the hell did you leave me alone at the bar?" I scoffed. "Backstabber.""Babe, we’ll talk about that later. Didn't you get the company message?" She paused, trying to catch her breath. "We are expected to resume at 8, for the inauguration of the CEO's son."I frowned as I placed the call on hold and started scrambling through my email, my eyes widened in panic as I found the email. "Fuck,
I watched as Chloe stood up, bowing her head and apologizing frantically. She looked at me and jerked me forward to apologize, but I was too mortified to speak."Which of you is my assistant?" His voice sent a shiver down my spine, cold and sharp.Chloe nudged me forward, and I glared at her as I stepped up, noticing that he wasn't the only one who heard me spitting out nonsense. The management team were also behind him as he scrutinized the entire building, pointing out things to be changed and removed. My face burned with embarrassment as they all stared at me blank-faced."I'm your assistant," I whispered, lowering my head, and bracing myself for the inevitable consequences."When you're speaking to me, you talk louder and more audibly," he demanded, not giving me a chance to respond. He turned to the woman beside him with a notepad. "Is this how they leave their work and gossip? Make sure this never happens again.""Yes, sir," the woman said, bowing slightly.His hands gestured fo
Tessa My eyes widened as he pulled me closer to him. The heat from his hand burned through my arms and into my skin. His hands slowly went to my behind, clutching it tightly, as he pulled my behind closer to his crotch. Every muscle in my body tensed, and it felt like my insides were liquefying. What the hell was he doing? My brain screamed at me to push his hand off, to tell him to never touch me again, but my body had other ideas. My nipples hardened, and I clenched my jaw in response. Traitor nipples. While my heart pounded in my chest, at least half a minute passed, and neither of us said anything as his hand moved down to my thigh, caressing. Our breathing and the muted noise of the city below were the only sounds in the still air of his office room. I was still in awe of how the atmosphere between us could have easily changed from stern to arousal when his coarse voice jolted me. "Turn around, Miss Mills." His voice broke the silence and I straightened my back, eyes facin
Aiden “Fuck” I’ve been staring at the ceiling since the time I woke up 1hr ago.My head a mess, My Dick hard as a rock, I swinged out of my bed.It didn't matter how many times i had pictured her and jerked off, i still get hard just thinking of her again What was I even thinking, it was bad already to have had a one-night stand with her but to have screwed her in my office, that’s way out of proportion.But how did she expect me to think, when that dress of hers hanged her curves like no other.She hadn't even let me cum, why couldn’t i just keep my pants togetherBut i had been so terrible to her, bossing her around and embrassing her in front of everyone, But damn when her ass grinded me, it took all the might in me not to chase everybody out of her office and fuck her right that moment.But what was she thinking telling her friend about her one night stand, apparently her friend didn’t know i was the one night stand, The last thing i wanted was a woman to hold so much control ov
TessaI walked out of the elevator, Chloe beside me chattering away, but my mind was too far away to even listen to what she was actually saying. My thoughts kept drifting to our encounter yesterday. Why was I so rude to him? He was my boss after all but He didn't deserve to be upset when he behaved like a jerk all day."Hey," Chloe nudged me back to reality. "What's with all this constant drifting away?"She nudged me more, a silly smile plastered on her face. "Are you still thinking about your one-night stand?"I almost gagged on my coffee as I realized I hadn't told Chloe my one-night stand was none other than our new boss, or we had just recently had the most heated conversation.I waved at Chloe as we both parted ways. She was the assistant in the marketing range, and I was the assistant who screwed my boss. As I reached my office door, I waited, staring at his door. Is he already in the office yet, or is he out somewhere screwing someone on a bright Wednesday morning? I sighed,
“Tessa!” Chloe's scream jolted me out of my thoughts. My gaze snapped widely, as I realized everyone’s eyes were on me. But none were more intense than Damien’s and Aiden’s. Damien’s lips curled into a wicked smirk, his eyes filled with wicked pleasure, while Aiden’s gaze stared daggers, he was angry. I knew it.I cleared my throat, but the sound was strangled, barely escaping my lips. “I’m really sorry for this. Please excuse me,” I managed to say, my voice cracking, betraying how resounding I wanted to sound.I turned and fled from the conference room, My cheek flushing out of embarrassment. Chloe followed behind, holding some piece of the glass cup she could manage to pick.As I hurried to my office, my heart pounded violently in my chest, each beat echoing the humiliation I felt. “Am I seeing things, or was that really Damien in the conference room just now?” Chloe began speaking, her voice laced with confusion as I opened my office door. “How? When? This can’t be happening!“
Aiden's POV"You look a little tense there, brother. Maybe you should try a yoga class."His voice cuts through the silence of my office while he entered and makes it his. He does not even bother to knock in. Never does. I lifted my head from the pile of reports on my desk, my hands already balled into fists under the table.He had always been this way: barging into places where he was not invited, stirring up messes for the sole reason that it so amused him."I'm not in the mood, Damien," I replied, my voice flat, fighting desperately to hold onto the calm I know I'm losing so fast. "What do you want?Damien spinned his back on me, striding over to the window to stare out into the cityscape. The smirking reflection stares back from the glass-like whole world is one big joke and I'm the punchline. Still got that signature smugness-the same look that infuriated me since childhood.“You know, being the dutiful brother that I am," he said finally, turning toward me, his hands sliding cas
TESSA'S POVSunlight streamed through the huge window panes of our house onto the invitations laid across the dining table. I sat with a pen in hand, writing down final guest names, while Aiden leaned against the counter sipping his coffee."We could just elope, you know," he joked, the corner of one lip tugging upwards with a mischievous smirk.I turned a mock glare his way. "After all this planning? Not in your life, Aiden GRAY. We're doing this properly."He laughed, setting his mug down as he ambled over to me. "Properly, huh? That's why you've been vetoing half my suggestions?""You wanted a firework display during the vows!" I reminded him, laughing.“And what’s wrong with that? It would’ve been epic.” He leaned down, pressing a kiss to my temple. “But fine, no fireworks. As long as you’re there, it’ll be perfect.”It was what he said that always made my heart flutter, and the words this time were not an exception. It was one of those weddings that put me into anticipation and j
AIDEN'S POVMonths melted away.Weirdly, life went on since it all came crashing down. It had been months since Damien's death, Chloe leaving the city, Tessa and me over his grave saying our goodbyes. Time didn't heal everything; that it never could. But the space it gave. to breathe, rebuild, and put pieces of our lives back into place-was something all of us had desperately needed.That, with me and Tessa, gradually slipped into rhythm, and whatever in our daily life had disappeared with time turned into the time worth living. The daily morning coffee on the balcony, the late evening lying on the couch curled up, making small talks about the future-this had become a routine thing with us. Indeed, chaos seemed to bypass us somehow, yet the shadows took one corner of my mind with the coming night.But as I watched Tessa, humming to herself and arranging flowers in the sitting room, it suddenly hit me-the ton of bricks they say are always used in such situations. I loved her; I had alw
AIDEN'S POVI did not want to come here. I had told myself that I wouldn't-that some things quite simply were not worth a second chance. But here we were. Tessa stood beside me, her hand in mine, as we walked through the cemetery toward Damien's grave. The wind was cold, a bite into my skin, but nothing compared to the chill now setting into my chest.There it lay, the newly turned soil, the headstone, and the blunt inscription stating his name: "Damien Gray." Seemed so … normal. No great sentences of poetically flowing verbiages, no flowery platitudes of an exaggerated regard. A plain, uneventful name to denote an end of the life so full of promise to me and torn by just so many things… in particular by myself.I had stopped in front of the grave, said nothing. All these emotions warred in my brain, jumbling anger, guilt, sorrow. And it wasn't just because of what happened to him. It was for everything, things that could have gone differently, which I should have done."Do you think
TESSA'S POVChloe sat up against the mountain of pillows that propped her back. Her skin was a dull white; those alert features dulled by exhaustion and pain. When her gaze locked with mine, something flickered over her face-shame, perhaps? Regret?"Tessa," she husked out, her voice husky, yet steady. "I didn't expect you to be here.”"I did," I said, stepping inside. The door clicked shut behind me, and the soft hum of machinery in the room served to fill the brief moment of silence.A minute swept by with neither of us speaking. I had absolutely no idea where to begin, while Chloe seemed to fish for the right words. Then she spoke.“I'm so sorry," Chloe said, her voice breaking. She looked down at her hands, which were twisting the hospital blanket over and over in a nervous fashion. "For everything. For what I did to you. For what I let Damien do.”Her words were like a wave, and all the anger and hurt I'd been trying to bury surfaced. I crossed my arms, my voice sharper than I mea
AIDEN'S POVIt all boiled down to me standing against cold brick outside of a hospital. The sharp night air almost nipped my skin but couldn't take away what had been brewing inside of me since the night Damien was finally gone.Dead.The word reverberated in my mind, hollow yet heavy. He had not reached the hospital. Just a few minutes later, when the ambulance had speedily gone away from the warehouse, the police confirmed that my brother was no longer alive. In the pit of my chest, a tussle between relief and guilt twisted itself into this sensation, which has made me so ill.I stared upwards, trying to make sense of the darkened sky. It was a path he'd chosen, wasn't it? He'd refused every olive branch, clung to his rage, and let it consume him. Still, a part of me couldn't help but ask: What if?The sound of footsteps pulled me from my reverie. Tessa came forward, her face ashen, eyes red-rimmed from crying. She wrapped her arms around her middle, as if holding herself to protect
AIDEN'S POVThe ropes chafing my wrists were heaved into the painfully darkened room by two of Damien's men. My rib cage was racing, pounding within me like a war drum, as my eyes coursed over every inch, scanning the space for her. The echoes of my footsteps rattled through this large, high-ceilinged area, joined by the smothering tension in the air.Then I see her.“Tessa!” screams my hoarse voice in desperation while seeing her tied around the chair, white faced, and tear streaks covering it, her arms bound behind her back, a gag over her mouth, muffling her cries while her big terrified eyes remained fixed on mine, imploring for help.It came finally with the breaking of the silence from Damien's cruel laughter. "Well, well, your Prince Charming is finally here.""Let her go, Damien," I said, shaking all over with anger mixed with fear.Damienne cocked his head to one side, his face a mockery. "And miss this little family reunion? I don't think so.”Damien started to circle me wit
TESSA'S POVThe stench of that dark room shredded through my senses. My wrists throbbed, sore where the coarse ropes had lacerated into the skin, and with each weak inhalation, it was like the final one that could break this tenuous will hanging by a thread.I was not going to back away from him, not from Damien after what he pulled on Aiden, on me, and our lives.Standing in the doorway was a mountain of a man, with a great scar running down his cheek, scraping his boots on the floor and yawning and weighing his weight on one side. He had been left to watch me; now or never was the time to try anything that came into my head.I pulled carefully, testing the looseness of the rope binding my hands, my heart racing in my chest. Hours of subtly working at this knot had finally paid off; it gave way just enough for me to slide my wrists free.I glanced over to the guard, who now had his head leaned back against the wall, his eyes shutting.Go, Tessa. Now.Summoning every last shred of cou
AIDEN'S POVThe house was creepily silent when I went in-the kind of silence that twisted my gut. Something was off because it was too still, too empty."Tessa?" I called out, dropping keys on the counter. Nobody answered.My eyes scanned around the living room, the kitchen-nothing. My chest had already tightened as I tried again, louder this time. "Tessa? Marcus? Garret?"No response.And then I saw it-her phone. It lay on the counter, cracked at the screen, looking like she had dropped it there in haste. Tessa would never leave her phone lying anywhere.Now dread set in as my heart began racing, strode toward the security room for some answers, though my gut already told me otherwise.I burst through the door into the room to find Marcus and two other guards huddled around the monitors."Where the hell is Tessa?" I growled low, an edge to my voice that could cut through glass.Marcus slowly turned to me, white as marble, and seemed to fish for his answer. "Sir… we were reviewing the
TESSA'S POVIt wasn't until we stopped before Aiden's building that the car came to rest; it was my safe refuge now turned into a sanctuary in which the fears inside my head seemed to nestle. Those were instances from two weeks ago, haunting in my mind like some unsavable storm-accusations which memory just didn't seem willing or able to rid itself of."You're home," Aiden whispered, and immediately his voice was an anchor of solace amidst my rioting thoughts.Turning back to him, I pushed a small smile. "Home," I echoed, though the word felt wrong. Was I ever again safe?Aiden climbed out first, coming around and pulling my door open. His firm hand reached inside toward me, steady and reassuringly strong. "Come on; got you.I hesitated, staring at his hand. For a moment, the hospital was safer. Out here, the world was too big, too dangerous. But I chased the fear away, telling myself Aiden would never let anything happen to me.I took his hand and he led me out of the car."Take it e