Chapter 45: Doubts and Desires

Chapter 45: Doubts and Desires


The sound of her phone buzzing shattered the silence in Eve’s cabin. She jolted, her chest rising and falling rapidly, her lipstick smudged from Lucas’s kiss. She fumbled for the phone, her hands trembling.

Daniel.

Her throat went dry. She swiped to answer, trying to steady her breathing.

“Eve? Where are you?” Daniel’s voice was calm, but she caught the edge beneath it—the familiar demand to account for herself.

“I—I was in my cabin. Changing… some coffee spilled earlier,” she lied, her voice deliberately soft, as though casualness could erase the heat still lingering on her skin.

There was a pause. She pressed the phone tighter against her ear. “I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Daniel said.

The line clicked dead.

Eve turned. Lucas was already walking toward the door, his expression unreadable, movements controlled. He unlocked the cabin door without a word, and before stepping out, he glanced at her once—just once—his eyes carrying something she couldn’t place. Then he was gone.

The room felt colder without him. Her bra strap slipped from her shoulder, and she stood frozen, the taste of him still on her lips.

That night, Eve lay in bed with Daniel by her side. He had fallen asleep after murmuring something about an early meeting. His arm was heavy across her waist, but she didn’t feel warmth—she felt trapped.

Her eyes were wide open, staring at the ceiling.

Why me? Why is Lucas interested in me?

It wasn’t affection, she could sense that. Lucas wasn’t a man who loved. He was a man who dissected, who stripped people down layer by layer until there was nothing left but vulnerability. He didn’t kiss her because he wanted her. He kissed her because he could.

The thought made her shiver—but not enough to stop her from craving more.

Days slipped into weeks, but nothing returned to normal.

Daniel, who once demanded her presence, grew distant. His company expanded into new international deals, and every time his phone rang, it pulled him further away from her. Even when they shared a table, he was absent, his gaze locked on his laptop, his fingers tapping furiously across the keys.

Sometimes he would look up, guilt shadowing his eyes. He tried—oh, he tried—to touch her hand, to ask if she was okay. But it was too late.

Eve had already drifted.

When she saw him, she didn’t see Daniel anymore. She saw the man who failed her. The man who chose power over her. The man who would never look at her the way Lucas did.

And Lucas…

Lucas filled the silence Daniel left behind. His presence was everywhere. He called her sometimes, only to ask meaningless things:
How was your day? Did the meeting bore you?
His voice was velvet—smooth, calm, yet sharp enough to cut into her thoughts long after the call ended.

Whenever something went wrong, she dialed his number before Daniel’s. Lucas never said much, but he didn’t need to. He made her feel
seen.
Important. Desired.

And that desire was becoming an obsession.

But not everyone was blind.

One evening when Lucas and Eve were walking by the dock towards Lucas’s yacht, from the shadows, Alexander watched.

He happened to be present there dealing with one of the traitor, drained in blood. And Alexander hates the people who plays with his trust in them.

Alexander stood at the edge of the dock that evening, cigarette in hand, the smoke curling into the night. His men lingered nearby, silent as stone. His eyes—cold, calculating—followed the subtle shift between Lucas and Eve. The way she leaned closer when Lucas spoke. The way her laughter rang louder when he was near.

Alexander smirked.

“She’s losing herself again,” he muttered.

One of his men asked, “Should we intervene?”

Alexander flicked his cigarette into the dark water.

“Not yet. Let her drown first.”

Even though Alexander helped Eve with her revenge, he was not happy. Sienna’s death was not the plan, yet she was dead making something in him break. If not what her father did to them, Sienna would have never ended up being dead with an untold story. He wish if she comes back.

Back in the city, Daniel started noticing the cracks.

At first, he dismissed them—Eve missing calls, being distracted during dinners, staring at her phone too long. He reminded himself she had suffered after Sienna’s death too, that maybe she was grieving in her own way.

But suspicion has a way of eating a man alive.

One evening, he reached for her hand at the table, and she flinched. Not violently, not enough for most men to notice. But Daniel did. His eyes narrowed, his jaw tensed.

Later, he caught her smiling faintly at her phone. When he asked, she said it was just an email.

But Daniel wasn’t blind. Something was pulling her away from him.

And he had a feeling he already knew who.

A week later, Eve and Lucas crossed paths in the quiet hall outside the boardroom. She had been waiting for him, though she’d never admit it.

Their conversation was brief, whispered between them like a dangerous secret.

“You’ve been ignoring me,” she accused softly, though her tone tried to stay playful.

Lucas’s lips curved into that maddening smile. He leaned closer, his voice low enough that only she could hear.

“You’re growing attached.”

Her chest tightened. “And you’re not?” she whispered back.

Lucas’s smile didn’t falter, but his eyes hardened, carrying an edge that made her pulse race. He stepped closer, his breath warm against her ear.

“You’re not the first woman I’ve dismantled.”

The words struck her like fire and ice at once. Her stomach twisted—half fear, half desire. She wanted to pull back, to protect herself. But instead, she found herself rooted to the ground, her heart thundering, her body betraying her.

Lucas pulled away, leaving her standing there—breathless, shaken, consumed.

And for the first time, Eve realized she wasn’t just falling for him.

She was unraveling.

Later that evening, Eve couldn’t sleep after Lucas’s words. She replays them again and again until paranoia and obsession twist into a dangerous hunger.