Page 20 of Bound in Silk

Even then, I maintained control. Summoned Gabriel, initiated protocols I've had in place since bringing her back into my life—contingencies for exactly this scenario, though I'd hoped never to need them. Credit card activity monitored,surveillance cameras accessed, facial recognition deployed across the city's security network. All while I continued my meetings, presenting an unruffled exterior while fury and fear waged war inside me.

"I was going to call you," she says now, her hands twisting together nervously. "Tonight or tomorrow. I just needed a day or two to clear my head, to make sure I was thinking clearly about everything that's happened."

"A day or two," I echo, advancing another step until mere feet separate us. "While I what? Waited? Wondered? Imagined you hurt or worse?"

"I left my prenatal vitamins out so you'd know I hadn't gone far," she counters, gesturing to the small bag open on the bed. "I kept the ring on. I wasn't rejecting you, Knox. I was just trying to catch my breath."

"You lied to me," I state, the betrayal cutting deeper than I care to admit. "Looked me in the eyes and lied about where you were going, who you were meeting. Created a deliberate fiction to facilitate your escape."

She doesn't deny it, can't deny what's objectively true. "Yes," she admits finally. "Because you wouldn't have let me go otherwise. Wouldn't have understood my need for space, for clarity, for a moment to think that wasn't colored by your presence."

"Then help me understand now," I challenge, closing the final distance between us, close enough to touch though I keep my hands at my sides through sheer force of will. "Explain to me how running, lying, hiding accomplishes anything except proving that your commitment to what we're building is conditional at best."

Her eyes flash with a mixture of guilt and defiance. "My commitment? You declared our engagement to the world without even asking me, Knox. You summoned Voguephotographers, orchestrated a public spectacle, presented me with a ring embedded with my own heartbeat—all without a single conversation about whether I was ready, whether I wanted it, whether I had concerns that needed addressing."

"Would you have agreed if I'd asked?" I counter, knowing the answer before she speaks.

"I don't know," she admits, honest at least in this. "That's the point. I needed space to figure that out. To decide whether I can do this—be yours in the all-consuming way you demand—without losing myself completely in the process."

Her words strike deeper than she knows, finding the heart of my fear, my vulnerability, my deepest concern. Because despite the possessiveness, the control, the determination to claim her completely, the last thing I want is to diminish the fire, the independence, the strength that make her who she is. That make her perfect for me.

"You think that's what I want?" I ask, my voice rougher than intended. "For you to lose yourself? To become some mindless extension of my will rather than the woman who challenges me at every turn? Who makes me question myself, prove myself, be better than I am?"

Confusion flickers across her face, as if this perspective hasn't occurred to her. "But you're so…controlling. So certain. So determined that everything happen exactly according to your vision, your timeline, your plan."

"Because I know what we could be together," I explain, allowing more vulnerability into my voice than I've shown anyone besides her. "Because I've seen the possibility of us, experienced what we create when we're united rather than divided, and I'm impatient for you to recognize it too. Not because I want to control you, but because I want to build something extraordinary with you, you crazy, impossible woman,” I growl, my frustration bubbling up inside me until Icrash my lips onto hers, all the fear and desperation I’ve felt coming to the surface.

Her lips yield beneath mine, soft and pliant despite the steel in her spine moments ago. That's what drives me wild about Piper—the contradiction. The way she fights me with fire in her eyes one moment, then melts against me the next. I can feel her surrender in the small gasp that escapes her mouth, in the way her fingers clutch at my shirt.

When I pull back, her eyes remain closed for a heartbeat too long. Victory surges through my veins.

"See?" I rasp, my thumb tracing her bottom lip. "This is what I'm talking about. This connection."

"Physical attraction isn't enough to build a life on," she whispers, but there's doubt in her voice now.

I laugh, the sound low and rough. "Baby, if you think what's between us is just physical, you're lying to yourself." My hand slides to cup her cheek, forcing her to meet my gaze. "This isn't that. It’s more and you know it."

Her pulse jumps beneath my fingertips. I can feel it racing, matching the thundering of my own heart.

"Then what is it?" she challenges, but her voice trembles.

"It's everything." The words tear from somewhere deep inside me, a place I didn't know existed before her. "It's looking at you and seeing the future I never thought I wanted. It's feeling whole when you're near me and empty when you're gone."

A tear slips down her cheek, and I catch it with my thumb. My chest tightens at the sight. This woman has unmade me, stripped away the hardened layers I've built over years until I'm raw and exposed. And God help me, I'd let her do it again and again if it means she'll be mine.

"I'm scared," she admits, and the vulnerability in those two words nearly brings me to my knees.

"Good," I tell her, pressing my forehead to hers. "That means it matters."

Her expression softens slightly, the defensiveness giving way to something more complicated. "I can't think clearly when I'm with you," she admits quietly. "You're too…overwhelming. Too certain. Too everything. I needed distance to sort through my feelings without your gravitational pull affecting every thought."

"And did you find clarity in your few hours of freedom?" I ask, genuine curiosity tempering the anger still simmering beneath the surface. "Did running accomplish what you hoped?"

She looks down at the ring still adorning her finger, twisting it slightly. "I don't know," she answers honestly. "I hadn't been here long enough to really think through everything when you arrived."

"Because I found you," I state, not a question but a simple fact. "Because there's nowhere you can go that I won't find you, Seraphina. Not because I'm trying to control you, but because I can't bear the thought of losing you again."

The raw admission hangs between us, the closest I've come to acknowledging the fear that drove my frantic search, that fuels my current fury. The terror of losing her again, of returning to the hollow existence I endured during our eighteen months apart.

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