Page 43

Breakdown

Adrian

I kissed her, trying to pour every emotion I’d been wrestling with since morning. My feelings had been all over the place, tangled in confusion, but now I knew this connection between us wasn’t just chance. It was fate, pulling its strings, weaving us together in ways I couldn’t ignore anymore.

When she talked about forgetting… something inside me snapped.

I couldn’t pretend to be indifferent, couldn’t live in denial any longer.

The idea of her moving on, leaving this behind, made my blood boil.

I needed to show her, to make her understand that what we have wasn’t something she could just walk away from.

Even though she tried to convince herself otherwise, I wouldn’t let her forget.

I groaned as I pulled back for air, my breath ragged.

Every part of me ached to keep going, to lose myself in her, but the break only sharpened the need coursing through me.

I stared into her eyes, not missing the glazed stare she had and her rising and falling chest. God, her eyes were my downfall.

No jewel, no light, no memory burned as fiercely.

They weren’t just beautiful. They were fatal.

If I’d ever claimed to have a favorite color before, I was lying to myself .

Now it was her gaze. She didn’t even have to speak. With just one glance, I was already unraveling. It wasn’t fair. The way she stood there, gleaming like a dream that wakes you in the middle of the night, breathless and aching. I didn’t stand a chance.

My lips hovered close to her ear, the warmth of her skin drawing me in further. “You can’t just walk away from this, Princess,” I murmured, my voice a low, strained whisper. “I won’t let you.”

She froze, her breath hitching. I didn’t pull back and didn’t give her space to escape the truth hanging between us. “We might go our separate ways,” I continued, my voice softer, but no less determined, “but I won’t let you forget.”

Her body trembled beneath my touch as I nipped at her earlobe, my breath warm against her skin.

A soft gasp escaped her, and I couldn’t resist trailing kisses and bites down her neck, slowly making my way to her throat, then lower, until I reached her collarbone.

Each kiss, each touch, felt like a claim, a silent promise I couldn’t voice.

She breathed heavily beneath my every touch, her pulse racing under my lips, her body arching into mine.

She was mine. No matter how much she might try to deny it, no matter how much distance we tried to put between us.

My hands roamed over her, gliding down the softness of her dress, the heat radiating from her skin through the fabric. That dress drove me wild the moment I saw her, barely restraining myself from bending her over and showing her exactly how she made me feel.

Gripping her waist, I caress the side of her breast, feeling the firmness give way to my gentle pressure before my hands glide back down her upper body to her waist again.

The intimacy of the gesture speaks volumes.

My touch is a silent promise of the desire that lies beneath my flesh.

Her breath comes in shallow, rapid bursts as I stare at her chest, her nipples now visible beneath the thin fabric of her dress.

I smirk and lift my gaze to meet her eyes, watching her pupils dilate.

“Oh, princess, you’re just as deep in this as I am,” I tease. “Why pretend otherwise?”

She opened her mouth, perhaps to protest or maybe to concede, but I didn’t give her the chance.

I caught her bottom lip between my teeth, a gentle bite, before claiming her mouth again.

Her gasp of surprise melted into the kiss, and my tongue slid against hers, a dance of heated breaths and raw hunger.

As our mouths move together, I feel a rush of intoxicating heat surging through me.

Her leg brushed against mine, and it was like a match striking against flint.

I pressed closer, feeling every curve of her body align with mine.

Each touch sends sparks racing across my skin, and I deepen the kiss, savoring the sweet taste of her mingling with mine.

As excitement builds between us, an electric current pulled us closer, urging me to lose myself inside her completely.

I can sense her heartbeat quickening, matching the rhythm of my own.

There’s a raw, primal connection that binds us, a shared hunger that leaves me craving more.

I’m intoxicated by her, captivated by the way she makes me feel alive in a way I never knew was possible.

But just as I lose myself in the intensity.

In her eyes. The sky erupted with a thunderclap, shattering the spell we were under.

I groan. The sudden noise pulls me back to reality, and she jerks, escaping my grip and slipping from my grasp like water through my fingers.

Frustration ripples through me as the first drops of rain fall, each one mirroring the turbulence inside me.

I watched, frozen in place, as she fled toward the suite, her silhouette barely visible against the backdrop of the storm that now raged around us, a fierce reminder of the tempest brewing within me.

I want to chase after her, to bridge the distance that the thunder and rain have created, but the reminder of my reality feels heavy, caught in the violence of the approaching storm.

I turned toward the sea, the calm waters now churned into chaos, waves crashing against the sides of the yacht as the wind howled around me.

The sky had darkened, and the once peaceful dusk was now transformed into a violent windstorm.

It felt like an extension of the turmoil inside me, and for a moment, I didn’t know where I ended and the storm began.

Cursing under my breath, I wiped the rain from my face and moved toward the helm.

I had no choice but to focus. The yacht lurched violently as another wave slammed against it, and I gripped the wheel, struggling to keep the boat steady.

The wind fought me, howling like a wild beast. Every movement was a battle to keep us from capsizing.

The rain pounded harder, turning the deck into a slippery mess. I glanced back toward the cabin, where she had disappeared moments ago, but I couldn’t afford to dwell on the lingering ache of her retreat. Survival came first.

As I fought to keep the yacht on course, I felt something shift deep within me. The storm, the wind, the ocean, weren’t just happening around me. It was happening through me.

A sudden realization crashed over me like the waves pounding against the ship. This storm… wasn’t just nature’s fury. It was mine. I felt the energy, a raw power thrumming beneath my skin, surging in my veins.

Lightning flashed overhead, illuminating the waves that threatened to swallow us whole, but fear no longer gripped me.

Instead, I felt the storm bending to my will, winds shifting at my command.

I wasn’t just the captain of this ship. Was part of the storm, the force that controlled the wind and waves.

I raised my hand, and as if answering my unspoken command, the winds howled louder, more violently. The waves grew larger, more ferocious, but they didn’t threaten me anymore. They were mine to command.

With each beat of my heart, I felt the power grow stronger, and the thrill, this newfound control, sent a rush of adrenaline through me.

I was no longer at the mercy of the storm.

I was storm. Stretching out my hand, I watched the storm respond, summoning more wind, more chaos.

The yacht bucked beneath me, but I remained steady, the fury of the sky pulsing through my veins.

I had never felt so alive, so in control.

The chaos was intoxicating, the raw power surging within me like a drug I couldn’t get enough of.

But then… I saw her.

Iryen.

She stepped out onto the deck, her hair whipping wildly in the wind, but she walked with purpose, her eyes locked on the sea. What was she doing?

I opened my mouth to call out to her, but the words died in my throat as I watched her raise her arms. And then…

the waves responded. She commanded the ocean with the same effortless grace she always carried, bending the wild, untamable sea to her will.

The towering waves that had once threatened to swallow us calmed, their fury melting away under her power.

The storm that had surged from my emotions— my storm—was no longer mine to control.

She had taken it, tamed it. And as the sea softened beneath her touch, something inside me softened too.

I folded my arms across my chest, watching her, feeling the raw power that had once been mine slip through my fingers.

She wasn’t just calming the storm—she was calming me .

The fury, the frustration—it all ebbed away, leaving me standing there, staring at her with my jaw dropped in awe.

She hadn’t just tamed the ocean.

She had tamed me .

As the waves calmed, I stood there, rooted to the deck, watching her with an intensity I couldn’t explain.

Iryen lowered her arms, her gaze distant as she stared out into the now-quiet sea.

The wind still played with strands of her hair, but the violent storm had given way to a strange, eerie peace.

I stepped forward, unable to help myself.

“How do you do it?” I called over the fading wind, my voice rougher than I’d intended. She didn’t turn to face me, but I knew she heard me. “Control the storm like that. Control… me .”

She let out a breath, her shoulders rising and falling as if she carried the world on them. “I don’t control you, Adrian. The storm wasn’t mine to tame. It was yours.”

I frowned, stepping closer, the wooden deck creaking beneath my feet. “What are you talking about? You calmed the storm, my storm. I felt it.”