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---
It didn't happen in one night.
Maya didn't fall into Elias's arms like some naĆÆve girl chasing warmth in winter.
She wasn't lost.
She was ruined.
And sometimes, ruin felt like home.
---
She hadn't gone back to her house.
Hadn't spoken to Serena.
Hadn't answered a single call from Jax.
She'd ghosted the world.
But not Elias.
Because Elias was the one place she could fall apart in peaceāand not be asked to pull herself back together.
---
> "You're still here," Elias said, brushing her cheek with the back of his hand.
They were in his room, lights off, the air thick with what they'd done.
The walls still held the echoes of their names. Their gasps. Her surrender.
> "I didn't plan to be," she whispered.
> "But you stayed."
She didn't answer.
He cupped her face, eyes burning into hers.
> "You could've left a hundred times. But you didn't. You didn't want to."
> "I don't know what I want anymore."
> "You do. You're just afraid to admit it."
---
Later, she stood in front of his mirror, his shirt hanging off her shoulder, her hair messy, her lips still swollen from his kiss.
She didn't recognize the girl staring back.
> "I look like someone else," she murmured.
> "You look like mine," Elias said from behind her, his voice low and proud.
She turned slowly.
> "What if I say no?"
> "Then I'll wait until you say yes."
> "And if I never do?"
He stepped forward, eyes shadowed.
> "You already did."
---
When he kissed her again, it wasn't gentle.
It was a storm.
He lifted her, pinned her to the wall, kissed her until she gasped against his mouth.
> "You're mine," he growled. "Say it."
She tried to resist.
But her body betrayed her.
Her heart wasn't confused anymoreāit was consumed.
> "Say it, Maya."
> "Iā¦ belong to you."
And in that silence after her confession, Elias smiled like a man who had just won a war.
Because he had.
---
Later, tangled in sheets and shadows, she whispered:
> "This isn't love."
He pressed his lips to her shoulder.
> "No," he agreed. "It's something worse."
---
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