Page 93 of Sweet Obsession

I should’ve pulled away. I should’ve hated him. But in that moment, his arms felt like home.

“What do you regret?” I whispered, my voice shaking, my fingers tracing the outline of his chest. I needed to understand. Needed to know if there was a chance to fix this.

Misha’s thumb brushed my lower lip, his eyes locked on mine, searching for something, maybe forgiveness, maybe an answer. “I regret every moment I made you hate me. But I want to be more for you, Luna. I want to fix this.”

The tenderness in his voice shattered something inside me. My anger faltered, slipping from my grasp like sand through my fingers.

And just then, I knew. I knew that no matter how hard I tried to fight it, the pull toward him, the need for him, would always be there.

He kissed my forehead, so gentle. I closed my eyes at the contact, letting myself feel it, feel him.

“I don’t know how to stop hating you,” I whispered, the words barely audible, the confession slipping out before I couldstop it. But even as I said it, I felt the lie. The truth was, I didn’t know how to stop wanting him.

Misha’s arms tightened around me, his forehead pressing against mine, his breath mingling with mine, warm and steady. His voice was barely a murmur, a promise. “Hate me, want me, love me, I’ll take it all, Luna. I’ll take you however you come.”

The walls inside me began to crumble. I let myself feel the tenderness of his touch, the warmth of his arms around me. There was a depth to his love, a rawness that threatened to consume me.

I couldn’t look away. Not now. Not when I felt like I was falling.

As we stood there, wrapped in the quiet intimacy of the moment, a memory of Mama flashed through my mind, her hands on mine, the piano keys beneath our fingers. Her voice, soft and warm. “Love is a melody, mi luna,”she’d said, “One you’ll find when you least expect it.”

I didn’t know if this was the melody she meant, but as Misha’s hand covered mine and guided me toward the piano, I wondered if it was.

It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t easy. But maybe it was a start.

Chapter 13

LUNA

The burner phone vibrated against my thigh, a violent shudder against the fragile quiet I’d found last night in the music room. Misha’s hands on mine, that lullaby... it still burned in my chest like a bruise I didn’t want to heal.

Chernov’s message came again.

How shameless could he be? After trying to kidnap me, after threatening everything I had left, he still had the audacity to reach out like we were playing some twisted game. Misha was right about him after all. He’s a poison wrapped in charm.

So I did what I should’ve done the first time. I blocked his number.

There are thousands of women in the world, why me? Why this obsession with another man’s wife? It wasn’t love. It was power. Possession. And I was done being a pawn.

But the new message made my lungs stop working.

We have Gabriela. Surrender yourself at the old mill by dawn tomorrow or she dies. – Vargas.The message was from the Vargas cartel, Yuri’s family.

The phone hit the floor. My knees followed.

A scream clawed out of my throat as I collapsed, the words slicing through my skull like glass. Gabriela. My sister. My last tether to anything good. Taken.

They didn’t come for me directly, they went for blood. For the one person I swore I’d keep safe. And I’d been stupid enough tobelieve Misha’s men guarding the compound she was meant she was untouchable.

This was my fault. My fucking fault.

Tears streamed, silent and endless. I should’ve protected her. Should’ve been better than this.

But I wasn’t.

I grabbed the phone and ran, my sweater slipping off my shoulder, my feet bare and freezing as I tore through the estate like a ghost with one name carved into my bones, Misha.

I found him hunched over a table in his study, maps spread out, storm in his eyes before I even opened my mouth.