Chapter 54 DANGEROUS LAISONS
Ava's POV
I found the café without trying too hard, just walked until the street felt familiar and there it was, same corner, same grey London morning outside the window, and Elias was already inside like he'd been expecting me, which by now I'd stopped being surprised about.
He looked up when I walked in and something in his face settled, like he'd been waiting and was relieved the waiting was over.
"You saw the symbols," he said when I sat down across from him, not a question.
"Last night," I said, "on his back, while he was standing at the window thinking I was asleep."
Elias nodded slowly and wrapped both hands around his cup and I noticed his hands, how steady they were, how nothing about him performed anything, he just sat there being exactly what he was and I couldn't figure out what that was yet.
"He's been suppressing it since you landed," he said, "keeping the human form controlled, it takes effort and sometimes at night when he stops concentrating it comes through."
"And the mark on me," I said, pulling my collar slightly so he could see the edge of it, "it glowed last night, I've never seen it do that before."
He leaned forward and looked at it and something moved in his eyes, concern maybe, or recognition.
"It's advancing faster than it should," he said quietly, "the bond between you and Dominic is moving on its own now, your body is responding to his presence whether you've agreed to it or not."
"What does that mean for me," I asked and I kept my voice flat because I needed information not comfort.
"It means the longer you stay near him without completing it, the more your body fights itself," he said, "same as your mother."
That landed hard and I sat with it for a second before I could speak again.
"You said you knew her," I said, "my mother, before she got sick."
"Yes," he said.
"How."
He was quiet for a moment and then he looked up at me and said, "the same way I know you, she was marked, connected to this world the same way you are, and the man she was bonding with was someone I was trying to protect."
"What happened to him," I asked.
"Your father happened," he said simply, "he took her away before the bond finished and whatever was started between them got cut off and her body has been trying to survive that ever since."
I pressed my fingers to the table and breathed through it because every time I thought I had the full shape of things another piece appeared that changed everything.
"Why are you helping me," I said, "the real reason."
He looked at me steadily. "Because I watched your mother disappear into that illness and I couldn't do anything and you are sitting in front of me with the same mark and the same look in her eyes right before everything went wrong and I am not doing nothing again."
I believed him and I wasn't entirely sure why but I did.
We talked for another hour and by the time I stood to leave my head was full and heavy and the mark on my shoulder was warm in a way it hadn't been when I sat down.
"Come back tomorrow," Elias said, standing when I did, "there's more and some of it is urgent."
"I will," I said and turned to go and then stopped because something made me turn back and when I did he was closer than I expected, just slightly, not threatening, just there, and his eyes were on my face with an expression I couldn't fully read.
"You really do look like her," he said quietly, and his hand came up and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear the way you do without thinking when something feels familiar, and the moment his fingers brushed my jaw I felt it.
The same pull.
Not identical to what I felt with Dominic, different, quieter, but real, a warmth that started where he touched and moved outward and I stood completely still because I didn't know what to do with it.
He felt it too, I could see it in his face, the slight surprise of it, and then he leaned in slowly, giving me every chance to step back, and kissed me.
It was soft at first, just his mouth on mine, careful, and I should have pulled away and I didn't, I stood there and let it happen and kissed him back before my brain caught up and I stepped back.
We looked at each other.
"What was that," I said.
"I don't know," he said honestly, and he looked as thrown as I felt.
I left without saying anything else and walked back to the hotel fast, the cold air not helping as much as I needed it to.
\---
The suite was empty when I got back and I went to the bathroom and pressed my wrists under cold water and stared at myself in the mirror and tried to think clearly and failed.
I heard the suite door open and went back out and Dominic was already there, jacket off, tie loosened, and he looked at me the way he always did and something about that after the afternoon I'd had made my chest do something complicated.
"How were the meetings," I said.
"Long," he said, coming toward me, his hands finding my waist automatically, "you went out."
"For coffee," I said.
He looked at my face for a moment and then kissed me instead of asking more and I kissed him back and tasted guilt and want simultaneously and pushed both down.
His hands slid under my shirt and pulled it over my head and his mouth moved to my jaw and down my neck and I got my hands under his shirt and traced the symbols on his back and he made a low sound.
"You're touching them," he said against my throat.
"Yes," I said.
He lifted his head and looked at me and his eyes were shifting already, the blue bleeding toward gold, and I watched it happen and didn't flinch and something in his face changed at that.
He walked me backward toward the window, the whole city spread out behind the glass, and turned me so my back was to his chest and his mouth came to my ear.
"Anyone across those buildings can see straight in," he murmured, his hands moving to the button of my jeans slowly, deliberately, like he had all the time in the world.
"I know," I said, and my voice came out steadier than I felt.
"And you don't want me to stop," he said, not really a question, his fingers already sliding the zip down.
"I don't want you to stop," I confirmed.
He pushed my jeans down slowly and his hand slipped between my thighs from behind and I inhaled sharply because I was already wet and he could feel it and he made a sound against my neck like he was pleased about that specifically.
"Already?" he said against my ear, his fingers moving slowly, barely touching, just enough to make me want more.
"Dominic," I said.
"Tell me what you want," he said, his fingers still maddeningly slow, circling but not giving me anything direct yet, and London was right there, all those lit windows, and I pressed both palms flat to the cold glass in front of me.
"Touch me properly," I said.
"Like this?" he said, one finger sliding in slowly and I gasped and my head fell back against his shoulder.
"More," I managed.
He added another and curled them and his thumb found my clit and started working it in slow deliberate circles while his mouth dragged down the side of my neck and I was making sounds I'd be embarrassed about later and genuinely did not care right now, my hips moving against his hand on their own, chasing it.
"Look at you," he said quietly against my shoulder, "pressed against the window for the whole city to see."
"Shut up," I breathed, which made him do it harder, and I cried out and my palms squeaked against the glass.
He worked me until I was right at the edge and shaking and then he stopped and I made a sound of pure frustration and spun around to face him.
"Why did you stop," I said.
"Because I want you to come with me inside you," he said simply, reaching past me to pull the curtain halfway across, just halfway, enough to be teasing about it, and then he picked me up and I wrapped my legs around him and he pushed inside me slowly, all the way, and we both went still for a second just breathing.
Then he started to move and I held onto his shoulders and let him set the pace and it was deep and slow at first, his forehead pressed to mine, both of us watching each other's faces, and the city glittered behind him through the half-open curtain.
"Faster," I said.
He gave me faster, his grip on my hips tightening, my back meeting the cold glass with every thrust, and I dug my nails into his shoulders and he hissed and went harder and I said his name and then just sounds that weren't words anymore.
He shifted the angle slightly and I gasped so loud he stopped.
"There?" he said.
"Don't you dare stop," I said and he smiled, actually smiled, and hit that same angle again and again and I came so hard my vision went white, shaking and gripping him and saying things I don't fully remember, and he followed me over seconds later with his face buried in my neck and both arms locked around me.
We stayed like that for a moment, both breathing hard, the city indifferent below us.
He carried me to the bed and we lay there in the quiet and I stared at the ceiling and thought about Elias's mouth and the pull I'd felt and the guilt that was still sitting there quietly waiting for me to deal with it.
Dominic's hand moved slowly in my hair.
Then it stopped.
"You smell different," he said, very quietly, not accusing, just noticing the way you notice something that doesn't fit, and he lifted his head and looked at me and his eyes were fully gold now, no blue left at all.
I didn't answer and the silence between us went long and careful and loaded.