Page 56 of Desperate People

Fuck. She’s so perfect.

And now there’s no going back.

“No regrets,” I whisper.

Then I kiss her again—this time, there’s no stopping.

Because she said it too.

Lucy is mine.

And I’ll spend the rest of the night proving it.

Chapter Ten-Lucy

The build-up is unbearable.

The want.

The ache.

The way he looks at me like I’m something precious and dangerous all at once.

I’ve wanted Balor Cruz from the first moment I laid eyes on him—quiet and coiled, his mismatched eyes shadowed and unreadable, like he saw things other people didn’t.

Like he saw me.

Even then, I knew he wasn’t safe.

Not in the traditional sense.

He was powerful in that subtle, bone-deep way. The kind of man who doesn’t need to shout to make a room go still. Who didn’t chase attention because the darkness inside him commanded it.

And now here I am, wrapped in his shirt, in his house, in his bed.

After tonight—after finding that note, that rose, knowing someone was in my apartment—it feels like the world cracked a little.

Like something unspoken is shifting inside me.

I need to feel connected to something, to someone.

I need to feel alive. Clean. Safe.

And there’s only one person I want right now. Only one person I want ever.

Balor.

The man with ink curling down his arms and tension carved into every line of his body.

He took off his shirt earlier and I swear—my entire body went hot.

He’s covered in tattoos, each one like a story he hasn’t told yet.

A map of pain and survival etched across muscle and scarred skin.

And he’s strong.

So strong.

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