Chapter 89

Chapter 89:

Torn Veins

Aurora’s POV

The kiss was raw.

Fierce.

Like years of silence had finally ruptured and spilled between our mouths. Dominique kissed like a man with nothing left to lose, his hands cradled my face, trembling slightly, like he feared I’d disappear if he let go.

I didn’t want to disappear.

Not right now.

His mouth moved against mine with growing hunger, his fingers trailing down my arms, then slipping around my waist. I melted into him without thinking. My hands found his chest solid, warm, familiar. Our breaths came in gasps between kisses, ragged and desperate.

He pressed me gently against the wall, his hand brushing the hem of my shirt. I felt my pulse thunder in my throat as his lips traced a line down my jaw to the sensitive skin beneath my ear.

I arched.

His hands traveled lower, exploring. My shirt lifted.

His hands roamed my breast, igniting a fire as his hands trailed through my body.

I wanted this.

God, I wanted him.

But then, like a wave of cold water crashing down reality returned.

My fingers curled tightly against his chest. I pushed.

“Stop,” I whispered, voice trembling.

His lips froze against my skin.

“I…I can’t. Not yet.”

He pulled back instantly. His eyes searched mine, stormy with emotion. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I just… I can’t lose myself in you, Dominique. Not when I still don’t know if I trust what I’m feeling. Not when I still don’t fully trust you.”

His jaw clenched.

“I want to,” I added. “But I’ve been used before. Lied to. You say you care but you never say it out loud. And I’m scared that I’ll give you everything, and you’ll disappear again.”

We stared at each other, suspended in a storm of what-ifs.

Then I turned and left.

The door shut behind me with a soft click.

\---

Dominique’s POV

The silence after she left was unbearable.

I stood there, alone, rain-soaked and trembling, not from the cold, but from the sudden emptiness clawing through my chest.

She’d pulled away.

She left me standing there like I was nothing.

I sank down onto the couch, head in my hands.

Why did it feel like she’d torn something from me when she walked away?

I told myself not to get attached. That I couldn’t afford softness. That I was the Devil, and Devils don’t love.

But then she kissed me.

And I felt like a man again.

Now I wasn’t sure what hurt more, her rejection, or the fact that I understood it. I’d given her reasons not to trust me. Hell, I didn’t trust myself. My feelings were a labyrinth. My guilt, my obsession, my need to protect her even if it meant destroying her world, all of it mixed together in a cocktail of self-destruction.

And Damian… he was circling her like a damn hawk.

I saw it. I felt it.

And suddenly, I wasn’t sure if I could hold on to her at all.

\---

Damian’s POV

I saw the shift.

The glances that lingered too long. The way Dominique looked at her now, like she was the only thing tethering him to reality.

I hated it.

He was my younger brother.

But the moment I saw Aurora, truly saw her I knew I wanted her. Not because she was beautiful or broken. But because she was fire. The kind of fire that burned you and made you want to burn again.

Dominique didn’t deserve her.

He only knew how to destroy.

Me? I’d give her peace. I’d give her a future.

I just had to say it. Make her hear it.

“Where’s Aurora?” I asked one of the maids.

The girl gave me a sympathetic glance. “She left an hour ago. Said she was going to visit her mother’s grave.”

Of course.

Where else would she go when her soul was in turmoil?

I grabbed my coat and left.

\---

Aurora’s POV

The cemetery was silent.

Wind whispered through the trees like forgotten lullabies. I knelt before the marble headstone, my fingers brushing over my mother’s name.

Seraphina Myles.

The woman I barely remembered but felt tied to in every heartbeat.

“I wish you were here,” I murmured, voice shaking. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I feel like I’m falling… and I don’t know who to trust. Or if I can trust myself.”

A tear slipped down my cheek.

I wiped it away, but more followed.

Dominique. His kiss. His hands. His eyes—the way he looked at me like I was the only thing that ever mattered.

I wanted to believe him. I wanted to fall.

But then… Damian.

His presence lingered in my thoughts, like a second heartbeat. He’d been kind. Patient. Real. And that scared me even more.

I was torn.

Between the devil I couldn’t resist and the man who made me feel safe.

“I’m so lost,” I whispered.

“You’re not.”

I turned, startled.

Damian stood a few steps away, his expression soft and shadowed.

“I didn’t mean to intrude,” he said gently. “But I… needed to see you.”

I swallowed. “Why?”

He stepped closer.

“Because I see you, Aurora. I see how hard you’re trying to be strong. I see how much weight you carry, and how no one’s ever helped you hold it.”

His voice lowered.

“I want to be that person. I want to be the one who makes you feel like you can breathe again.”

“Damian…”

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “That Dominique and I are two sides of the same coin. But we’re not. He’ll always put blood before you. I’d put you before everything.”

His words made my chest ache.

“I don’t want you to be his,” he continued, stepping even closer. “I want you to be mine. I want to wake up beside you. To hold you when the world is cruel. I want… you, Aurora.”

I couldn’t move.

Couldn’t breathe.

Then, before I could speak, his hand reached for mine. He leaned in, his breath mingling with mine.

And he kissed me.

It wasn’t fire like Dominique’s, it was warmth. Steady. Soft. But beneath it was something dangerous. Possessive.

Conflicted, I didn’t push him away.

Not right away.

And that was when I felt it.

Eyes.

Watching.

A presence like a thundercloud just out of reach.

I turned slowly.