Danae’s POV
The seat creaked as Caspian moved beneath me, his hands tightening on my hips to guide me.
In the low light, strain showed along his jaw and in his half-closed eyes; perspiration shone at his brow.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” he said hoarsely.
His voice pushed me over the edge again.
Pleasure tightened through my body, each sensation briefly more distinct than the last, until holding myself together no longer seemed possible.
I felt his movements begin to lose their steadiness, heard the change in his breathing.
Then he drew me close and reached his own release with a deep, broken sound that filled the little car.
For a fleeting moment, his expression softened.
I waited.
Some part of me thought he might speak, give this thing between us a shape I could understand.
He didn’t.
He only brought me against his chest, where his heartbeat met mine above the faint sound of the cooling engine.
I let myself rest there.
My strength had deserted me, and the back seat left scarcely any space between our bare bodies.
The glass had fogged completely, shutting the outside world away.
As my breathing steadied and the last waves of pleasure subsided, the warmth that had seemed so complete began to leave something painfully vulnerable in its wake.
Reality returned in pieces.
Jorah Medical Center, and the interview that had led nowhere.
My father’s declining health.
Bills that kept growing whether I could pay them or not.
I was lying naked in a luxury car with the man whose company had turned me down.
A few minutes of escape had changed none of the things waiting for me outside.
Caspian traced idle shapes across my back.
Beneath my cheek, his heartbeat slowed into a steady rhythm, as if there were nothing in the world to disturb him.
“I can practically hear you thinking,” he murmured, brushing his lips over my hair.
I had no answer I wanted to give him.
Twice now I had ended up with him, despite the promises I kept making to myself.
I was supposed to be looking for a way to help Dad.
Being strong.
Finding work, finding money, finding some solution.
Instead, I was here, wrapped around an arrogant wolf shifter while all my responsibilities waited.
My phone buzzed among the clothes on the floor.
Eirwen had sent three messages, each more worried than the last, asking where I was.
I replied quickly that I was fine.
Nothing about the car.
Nothing about Caspian.
Even putting that much into words felt beyond me.
Under me, he shifted.
His body responded again, and the hands that had wandered lazily over my back slid down to hold my hips with renewed purpose.
“Another round?” His voice sank into the same deep register that had affected me earlier.
“I still want more of you.”
His eyes had darkened.
Minutes ago, that look would have made me melt.
Now it made me want space.
“No.
I have to leave.”
I tried to ease away from him.
His hands tightened instead.
He seemed to take my attempt to move as teasing, as though my words could mean something other than what I had said.
“That’s not what your body is saying, little doe.”
He pushed his hips upward, apparently intending to prove it.
Something inside me broke sharp and clean.
Before I could think, my hand struck his face.
The crack rang through the car.
“I told you no!”
He stopped at once.
First came disbelief.
Then his expression closed, the shock hardening into a coldness that made my stomach drop.
An unnatural blue light flashed in his eyes.
The sound rising out of his chest wasn’t quite human.
Suddenly, I could think of nothing but how exposed I was.
His hand snapped around my wrist.
Pain bit into the skin beneath his fingers; his other hand remained clamped on my hip, keeping me where I was.
When he spoke, the voice that had murmured against my hair was almost unrecognizable.
“Do you understand what you’ve just done?”
I stared at him, my heart racing for an entirely different reason.
Fear now.
His face looked sharper, more dangerous, as though the man I had been holding had shifted away and left something predatory in his place.
His grip closed harder around my wrist.
“No woman has ever dared to hit me before.
Have you any idea what that could cost you?”