Page 57 of Born in Sin (Phoenix #3)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

VIRAT

The room he let himself into was cloaked in shadow, hushed and still, the scent of the city barely filtering through the cracked window.

The only illumination came from the glowing mosaic of the Mumbai skyline beyond the glass, a glittering sprawl of light and motion that stretched endlessly into the distance.

The Sea Link carved through the dark waters like a trail of liquid gold, shimmering beneath the scattered stars and the moonlight diffused by city haze and pollution.

Inside the room, time seemed to slow.

She sat by the window in a straight-backed chair, her silhouette framed in silver and shadow.

Her profile was turned slightly toward the city, her expression unreadable, her posture still, frighteningly still.

Back straight. Hands resting lightly on her lap.

Feet planted firmly on the floor, as though bracing herself against something only she could feel.

She looked like a woman on the edge of decision, caught between deafening silence and a storm.

Virat closed the door behind him, the soft click slicing through the quiet like a pin dropped in a cathedral. The air in the room shifted with his presence, dense with unsaid words and the gravity of what they were both carrying.

He didn’t speak. He couldn’t. Not yet.

He stood frozen just inside the doorway, eyes on her, only on her.

His gaze swept over her like a man starved, taking in the fall of her hair, the curve of her cheek, the rise and fall of her breath.

A fierce mix of relief and rage battled in his chest. His pulse still thudded in his ears from the chaos of the last few hours, from the frantic rush to get here after learning she needed him.

Adrenaline still surged through his veins, raw and electric, but it was nothing compared to the pounding of his heart as he stared at her.

She hadn’t turned. Hadn’t looked at him. Not yet.

But she knew he was there. He could feel it. He could see it in the way her spine stiffened ever so slightly, in the breath she held for half a second too long. She always sensed him before anyone else did.

He took a single step forward.

Toward her.

The need to touch her was primal, bone-deep. His fingers curled slightly at his sides, aching to reach for her.

“What gave you the right to do what you did?”

The soft question stopped him in his tracks.

“What did I do?”

She turned to look at him, those large, beautiful eyes lasering into him.

“Don’t,” she said, simply. “Don’t do that. Don’t deflect.”

His heart tightened in his chest as he met her gaze, her eyes stormy pools of banked emotion.

“Your mother told you.” Quiet resignation filled his voice.

She put her hand up to stop him. “I asked you a question. Answer me please.”

Virat took a deep breath, trying to put decades of suppressed emotion into words, rational words.

“What gave you the right to sacrifice your life, your future, your health, all of it for me?”

“My love for you,” he said, his legendary control snapping. “My love for you gave me the right.”

“And what about my love for you?” She tilted her head as she watched him, her eyes taking on a hard, cynical glint.

“Was that irrelevant to this grand plan of yours? Did your love for me make it easy for you take my choices away from me, to make decisions on my behalf, to break my heart, to break me for the greater good?”

Her chest was heaving when she stopped talking, her pretense of calm fraying under the intensity of her emotions.

“Are you done?” he asked her, when she finally fell silent.

Cara nodded, tipping her chin up in challenge.

“Good. Then you can listen while I talk.” He walked over to where she sat and dropped to his knees in front of her.

She opened her mouth to say something, but he held up a hand, saying quietly, “My turn.”

Cara shut her mouth, waiting.

“My mother walked away from me when I was two weeks old. She never looked back. My father has preferred to ignore my existence, shoving me into any place that kept me out of sight and out of mind. And then you arrived at Crestwood. And you chose me.”

He held her gaze, swallowed hard. “No one ever chose me, Celi, not until you. But you did and you kept choosing me every single day after that. No matter how many times I asked you to leave me, you never did. And you paid the biggest price for choosing me, for loving me. They would never have come for you, if not for me.”

“I would burn the world down for you, Celi. But I was the reason your whole world burnt down instead. Leaving you so you could live, breathe, and be the best possible version of yourself, basking in the sunlight or the arc lights without my shadows infecting you, it was both the hardest and easiest decision I have ever made. I would make it again, Celi. Every single time. Hate me for it, if you want, but I would put you first. Every. Single. Time. In this lifetime and every one that follows.”

She closed her eyes, a single tear tracking down her flawless cheek. She dropped her forehead to his, her breath feathering over his lips.

“You had no right,” she whispered again. “To take that choice away from me.”

“I’m sorry.” Choked, emotional words spilled from his lips, his head dropping to her lap, burying his face in the soft warmth of her. “I’m so sorry but leaving you was the only way I could help you. And there is no way that I wouldn’t take to help you.”

She tangled her fingers in his hair, tugging so he’d look up at her.

She kissed him gently, her lips caressing his.

The kiss deepened in an instant, going from soft to shattering.

His hands framed her face, fingers digging into her skin like he needed to ground himself in the reality of her.

She tasted like fury and longing, like the years he’d lost and the breath he hadn’t taken since.

He groaned into her mouth, part agony, part surrender.

Celi gasped as he kissed her harder. Her hands slid down to his shoulders, clinging.

Clothes tore between them, buttons flying, cotton ripping, her top peeled down to reveal flushed skin and heaving breaths.

His mouth was everywhere, greedy and reverent, lips trailing from her collarbone to the curve of her breast. He sucked her nipple into his mouth and she arched, a strangled moan breaking from her throat.

Her hands were no gentler, pushing, clawing, yanking his shirt off, nails raking down his back like she needed to mark him. Like she needed him to carry this with him when he left again. But he wasn’t going anywhere. Not this time. She wouldn’t let him.

“God, Celi,” he breathed against her skin. “You undo me.”

“And you put me back together,” she whispered.

He growled, a deep, guttural sound, and shoved his pants down, her underwear following. There was no coyness, no hesitation. Just skin on skin, raw and real. He reached for the condom in his wallet and sheathed himself. He hovered above her, thick and hard and trembling with restraint.

“Mine,” he murmured, taking her mouth in a kiss that branded them both for eternity.

“Always yours,” she answered, as she wrapped her fingers around him and guided him to her. He thrust into her in one fluid, savage stroke—and they both cried out.

The stretch, the heat, the goddamn relief of being inside her nearly unravelled him.

She clung to him with legs around his hips, heels digging into his back as he moved.

It wasn’t tender, it wasn’t gentle, it was everything they’d buried erupting at once.

She met him thrust for thrust, moaning into his mouth, panting against his throat.

Every movement felt like punishment and forgiveness, a vow and a plea.

He pinned her wrists above her head, eyes locked on hers, taking her like it was the last thing he'd ever do. Her body convulsed beneath him, her orgasm hitting like a storm—violent, involuntary, sacred. She sobbed his name as she shattered.

And when he followed her, seconds later, he buried his face in her neck and let go with a raw, strangled groan, pouring everything he’d never said into her body.

They collapsed into a tangled heap of limbs and sweat, too stunned to speak. Silence settled around them like smoke—warm, clinging, impossible to escape.

Celi lay sprawled across his chest, her hair damp against his skin, her breath still catching now and then like her body hadn't quite recovered. His arms were around her, tight but gentle, one hand drifting slowly up and down her spine in a motion more instinct than thought.

Neither of them spoke.

Because words would break it, the weight of what they’d just done, the hope it carried with it.

“I didn’t think I’d ever touch you again,” he said quietly, the words scratching their way out of his throat. “I used to dream about it. Wake up with my hand clenched around nothing.”

Her fingers tightened against his ribs. “And I used to wake up angry that I still wanted you.”

He closed his eyes. “I deserve that.”

She sighed, not in bitterness—but in something softer, sadder. “It was always you. There never was and never will be anyone else. Not for me.”

His breath hitched. He tilted her face up, brushing her damp hair behind her ear. “I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to earn your trust again. Give me a chance to earn you.”

“Earn me? How do you earn a ghost? I don’t know if I even exist. I don’t know who I am anymore.

I buried Celina to become Cara. I lost that girl that night, and I forced myself to become someone else.

But it’s a mask. Just a mask. It’s not me.

Who am I? The girl you loved? The girl her mother betrayed?

The girl they violated? Who the hell am I? ”

“You’re mine. In every avatar, in every mask, in ever era of your life, you’re mine. That’s who you are. Mine.”

He cupped the back of her head and tilted her face up so he could look into her eyes, so she could see the truth of them.

“Every night, no matter where I was in this world, I stood on a terrace or balcony and I looked up at the night sky. Every single night. There are a million stars that litter that sky but to me there is only one, I only ever see one – you. I have only ever seen you. You are the brightest star in my sky. And I would never let your light dim. This time, the choices are all yours. Whatever you choose, you choose for us both.”