Jessica's POV
"Because I like you, Ethan," I murmured quietly, eyes locked on his. "Yeah, I know it's crazy... but I always have."
The moment those words left my lips, something shifted in him his body stiffened, his jaw clenched, and he stared at me like I'd completely lost my mind.
And maybe I had.
But only for him.
"W…what?!" he stammered, his voice cracking as shock no—disbelief flashed across his face like a slap.
"What are you even saying? We only just met. So what do you mean you've always liked me?" His voice dropped, deep and gravelly, so guttural it twisted something dark inside me.
God, that voice.
If only he knew how long I'd fantasized about hearing it. Just like this.
I leaned forward slowly, letting my fingers trail across his chest, feeling his heartbeat thunder beneath my palm. "What do you think, Ethan? That I just started touching you out of nowhere? Dressing like this around you for no reason?" My voice dropped to a whisper seductive and dangerous.
"You think this started last night?" I scoffed gently, brushing my thumb along the hem of his shirt, watching his muscles tense beneath my touch. "No, Ethan. You're grown enough to know desire this deep doesn't come from a single glance."
I moved around the table, deliberately slow, circling him like a predator.
Now I was standing in front of him. He didn't move he didn't speak but just watched me like a movie.
My fingers slipped under his shirt again, teasing the warm skin beneath as I leaned in closer, this time almost brushing his lips. "This ache between my thighs, this burning need to run my hands across your chest—Ethan, it's been there... even before last night."
His eyes narrowed, jaw ticking. "And how the hell is that possible," he rasped, "when I'm only just seeing you for the first time? Have we… met somewhere before?"
His voice was tight, anger laced with confusion but under it, something else lingered, curiosity and temptation. I noticed how his gaze flicked briefly to my lips, then back to my eyes and I could tell he was fighting it.
And God knows I was loving it.
"Not exactly," I said, finally removing my hand from his chest. "We haven't met… but I've seen you. In a photo. In Marcus's study."
His breath caught.
"What?" he muttered, eyes widening. His entire expression froze just as his lips parted in disbelief.
I smiled faintly. "Long before now, back when we were still abroad. Marcus used to talk about you all the time. And it was never anything nice. If he wasn't cursing you, he was blaming you."
His frown deepened.
"That made me curious. Who was this Ethan? Why did the mention of your name make Marcus lose his mind?" I laughed lightly. "At first, I asked him but he always shut me out and that only made me more curious."
I pulled back, balancing myself properly on the table.
"So I started snooping around and that was when I found a photo of you. You were younger probably in your early teens completely shirtless and your eyes was wild with something... different. That picture, God—I couldn't stop staring at it. You had something in you something raw, something magnetic."
I exhaled, staring right at him.
"Every time Marcus wasn't around, I'd sneak into his study just to see you again, just st to feel that pull."
Ethan's face was unreadable now but I saw his throat bob as he swallowed hard. His fists clenched tightly on the arms of the chair his body was betraying him, he was trying not to react, trying to hold on and God seeing him react like that was enough to make my core pulsed with need.
Good. Perfect.
"I thought it was just a harmless crush… at first," I whispered. "But then I started imagining things, things I shouldn't. Like what your touch would feel like, what your voice would sound like wrapped around my name, I started touching myself while staring at that picture."
He flinched obviously stunned. Still my expression didn't waver.
"When Marcus touched me… I'd close my eyes and imagine it was you. Ethan You. and that's when I knew it wasn't a crush anymore."
I paused to breathe deeply.
"That day at the airport when you stared at me like I was the only thing in the world—that was it, my breaking point whatever I felt before... it exploded after that. If I liked you before... it got worse."
Silence.
For a long moment, neither of us spoke the tension in the room thickened as our eyes locked unto each other my chest was rising and falling.
And him—his knuckles whitened around the arms of the chair his breathing quickened and his eyes burned red but he didn't looked angry instead he looked somewhat complicated somehow confused and perhaps conflicted.
It was obvious my words struck something in him.
"Wait… what?!" he finally choked out with a scoff. "So you're telling me… you've been obsessing over me even before we met?" his voice was filled with immense disbelief.
I nodded slowly, lips parted slightly. as I watched him unravel.
"Unbelievable," he muttered, shaking his head his face twisted into a confused frown."You're Marcus's wife."
"And yet," I whispered, "my fingers still remember how it feels to come while whispering your name."
He stared at me, speechless. Almost dazed.
I continued, my tone softer now but deadly serious. "I didn't tell you this so you'd start acting like a scared little boy, Ethan I told you because you need to understand what you're dealing with.Why I look at you the way I do. Why I can't help myself."
He swallowed hard again.
"You want the truth?" I leaned in, close enough to feel the heat of his breath. "Part of the reason I convinced Marcus to bring us here... was you."
"Wow…" he spoke finally his tone bitter and cold. "So you're really this shameless aren't you?" He sniped but I didn't reply him, just watched him quietly.
"And what do you think Marcus would do when he finds out his trophy wife's obsessed—or should I say lusting after his own brother?" he retorted sharply raising a brow at him.
I smiled a real one this time and not the smirk I usually wore.
"I don't care anymore," I replied back and his brows dipped in obvious disbelief but I continued anyways "Actually I stopped giving a fuck a long time ago. Especially when every time I close my eyes… all I see is you." I brought my hand up to trace his jawline my touch, slow delibrate yet teasing he didn't flinch under the contact but I noticed his muscles seems to tensed up.
"That's to tell you how deeply obsessed I am with you," I said seriously, locking eyes with him. "And you should know I don't plan to stop."
He blinked, jaw clenching. I could feel it—the way my words were breaking something in him.
I drew my hand from his jaw, then slid it under his chin and tilted his face toward mine our lips almost touched.
"I want you, Ethan," I breathed all over his face "And I'm going to do all I can to get you even if it means risking everything." I leaned forward to press a short light kiss on his lips, then pulled back, climbed down from the table, smoothed my dress, and then walked out.
---
I walked into the room I shared with Marcus in the Creed mansion. He wasn't there. He'd left right after breakfast, saying something about a business call.
I shut the door behind me slowly, the silence in the room settling around me like a heavy blanket. My feet moved on their own toward the mirror. I stood in front of it for a while, just staring
It's wasn't at my dress. Neither was it my hair but my eyes as I did, I recalled Ethan expression back there when I was confessing my feelings to him.
The way he just sat there silently staring at me, his jaw tight, his fists clenched and the look in his eyes like he didn't know whether to pull me in or push me away how his felt breath uneven through out and the way his body tense under my touch.
That reaction—God, it lit something in me. The fact he didn't say yes... but didn't say no either. The way he looked at me like he wanted to ruin me.
Good lord—It did something to me infact it got me wet all over again and made me want him even more.
I exhaled, sharp and shaky, then reached behind me to unzip my gown. I undressed slowly, bra off, panties down until I stood completely naked.
My body ached already soaked.
Immediately I reached for my phone I knew exactly where to go—my gallery. I scrolled until I found it.
That one photo of Ethan, the same one I had seen in Marcus's office the first time I couldn't help it I'd taken a quick shot of it. For moments like this.
I held the phone tight in my hand and walked into the bathroom my fingers moved up to my breasts, my skin already sensitive. I stepped into the tub and turned on the shower, letting the water run while my mind drifted to One person.
Ethan.
My other hand slipped between my thighs and found my already soaked core. The second I slid my fingers inside, a loud moan burst from my lips.
"F**k," I gasped, my body arching as the pleasure struck hard and fast my back curved, my thighs trembling. My fingers moved slowly at first but it wasn't enough I wanted more, I needed more.
"Oh...mmm," I whimpered, slipping in a second finger the tension was unbearable my breath hitched, my lips parted again as I imagined it was Ethan touching me imagine it was him watching me, whispering my name in that low, dangerous voice I'd only heard once.
I bit my lower lip as my pace picked up desperate and starving every part of me was on fire I couldn't think of anything else but his face, his voice. His mouth. His hands.
God, what was happening to me?
I forced in a third finger, a choked gasp ripping through my chest.
"Oh God," I panted, my free hand clutching at the side of the tub while the other worked me harder and faster.
My thighs shook feverishly my stomach tensed as my hips bucked up against my own hand like, I couldn't even control it anymore.
I imagined him on top of me. His breath hot against my skin the way his body would feel between my legs. I imagined the way he'd say my name while he was inside me.
I didn't care anymore.
My eyes shut tight as I threw my head back spreading my legs wider while my fingers continued working in and out of me with steady, desperate pressure. My core pulsed around them, the heat building so high I could barely breathe.
I groaned, my free hand rose to my breast, fingers curling around it, pinching and rolling until I cried out. I imagined Ethan's mouth on me instead his teeth sucking on them, his hands fondling and caressing them.
"Oh f**king Christ," I gasped, my voice breaking as I shoved in a fourth finger, my back arching so high off the tub I nearly slipped.
I was close. So close.
"Ethan," I moaned, voice raw, broken, his name falling from my lips like a prayer. I grabbed my phone again, staring at his picture those piercing gray eyes, that well chiseled jawline and face that always drove me crazy.
"Oh Ethan... Ethan... please f**k me... please—"
"And what the f**k is going on here?!"
The door suddenly slammed open.
I froze my eyes snapping open at once only to behold him.
Marcus.
He was standing there by the door staring at me.
His eyes wide in shock, his face twisted in a frown and his lips curled in disgust as he looked at me completely exposed, legs wide, fingers deep inside myself, phone still clutched in my hand.
And then it happened.
I came. Right in front of him.
My body trembled violently, my mouth fell open and my fingers pulsed inside me as a loud cry ripped from my throat. My legs twitched, my breath came in short, sharp gasps. And the only name I whispered... was Ethan.
My lips quivered. My body sagged back into the tub as shame crawled over my skin, like something alive.
Marcus didn't move neither did I.
We stood there staring at each other eye ball to eyeball as silence swallowed the room whole.