Chapter 94 Studio Surprise
LILA POV
With every step I took, the ache between my thighs deepened, spreading like a slow burning fire that refused to die. My body throbbed with a restless hunger, a desperate need to be claimed, to be filled, to have Nico cock buried so deeply inside me that thought itself would dissolve into pure sensation.
I had never pretended to be innocent because desire had never frightened me. I had always enjoyed the pull of it, the rush of surrender but ever since Nico, everything had changed. He had shown me a version of pleasure that was darker, richer, more consuming than anything I had ever known. With him, desire wasn’t just physical, it was intoxicating, addictive, dangerous and now I craved it, craved him.
Today marked the second time he had denied me. The second time he had walked away and left me burning. It had been too long since I had unraveled around him, too long since I had felt that overwhelming release that only he seemed capable of dragging out of me. I needed it now in the same instinctive way a drowning person needed air.
My skin felt too tight for my body every nerve felt raw and unsatisfied. My thoughts spiraled, drifting into dangerous fantasies that made my pulse stutter and my breath grow uneven.
“Here.”
Nico’s voice cut through the haze, he stopped in front of a door and gestured toward it, and only then did I realize I had barely noticed the walk here. My mind had been somewhere else entirely lost in longing, trapped in him.
He placed his hand on the handle but didn’t open it immediately. “I know how much your art means to you,” he said quietly. “It’s how you deal with things. I know it hasn’t been easy for you since everything that’s happened.” He paused, then shrugged slightly. “So I wanted you to have your own space, somewhere you can come when it gets too much.”
My brows pulled together in confusion as he slowly opened the door and stepped aside, motioning for me to go first. I walked in and stopped breathing.
“Nico…”
The room stretched wide and bright, filled with soft natural light. Blank canvases rested on easels like silent promise, a long table stood against the wall, covered with brushes, paints, charcoals, pencil every tool an artist could ever want. Shelves lined the walls, stocked with supplies I hadn’t even realized I’d been missing and It was perfect.
He stepped in beside me, his presence immediately filling the space even more than the sunlight did. “This is your studio,” he said simply. “I made sure it has everything you might need but if there’s anything missing, you tell me, and I’ll get it.”
I turned to him slowly, still stunned. “You did this for me?”
“It seems that way.”
His tone was neutral, almost detached, but I knew him well enough to recognize the quiet intention behind it. I studied his face then, really studied it. In a room full of beauty, Nico was still the most striking thing in it. He carried power the way storms carried thunder effortless and unavoidable. A man who bore weight without ever bending beneath it. His presence demanded attention, demanded respect even mine.
Even when he twisted my mind into knots. “Why?” I asked softly. “Why would you do this for me?”
He slipped his hands into his pockets, gaze drifting forward. “Do I need a reason?”
“You don’t,” I admitted. “But I do.”
That made him glance at me. “Why?”
“Because you never tell me anything.”
His jaw tightened. “I tell you more than you need.”
“I’m not talking about your world,” I said, my voice sharpening. “Not about your family or your rules. I’m talking about us and about whatever this is between us.”
He turned fully then, his attention locking onto mine like a weight pressing down on my chest.
“And what do you think is happening between us?”
“That’s what I want you to tell me.”
“I already have.”
My frustration spiked. “What does that even mean?”
He dragged a hand through his hair, tension flashing across his face. “You see?” I pressed. “This is exactly what I mean, you speak in riddles the only thing you’ve ever said clearly is that you’ll never let me go.”
His gaze hardened. “Is that not enough?”
“No,” I said, the word leaving me raw. “It’s not enough. I want to know why you won’t let me go and I want to know why the thought of me leaving scares you, why you looked like that when I fainted earlier.”
“Is it wrong to be concerned when you’re unwell?”
“No!” My voice cracked under the pressure building inside me. “It’s not wrong, none of it is wrong. I just I need to know why.”
Silence swallowed the room as our eyes locked, and everything else faded into gray nothingness. My heart pounded so loudly it drowned out thought. The air between us thickened, stretching into something fragile and endless and then Mirabel’s voice echoed in my head.
Don’t try to understand him just trust him.
It had sounded like the simplest advice in the world and the hardest.
Tears burned behind my eyes, threatening to spill, my chest felt too tight, my heart too large, like it might shatter through bone. The way he looked at me it wasn’t empty and It wasn’t cold.
There was something there, something deeper than possession but what?
Don’t try to understand him, I broke eye contact first. If I kept staring, I was afraid I might see too much or worse want too much.
“Thank you for this,” I murmured, glancing around the studio again. Gratitude filled me, warm and real but beneath it was an ache that wouldn’t fade. I wanted more than this room.
I wanted the truth, he extended his hand. A key rested in his palm. “There’s only one key,” he said. “This one, no one enters without your permission not even me.”
I took it carefully, holding it like something fragile. “I don’t know what to say.”
He stepped closer, his height swallowing the light as his shadow fell over me. “I’m a selfish man, Lila,” he said quietly. “I’ve never pretended otherwise, I will never be selfless especially when it comes to you. My need to own you to be the center of your world will always outweigh my desire to be better.”
My breath caught. “Nico, you”
“As I’ve told you before,” he continued, cutting me off gently but firmly, “I am never letting you go. And this” he gestured around the studio “this is yours, only yours. A place where you can have freedom while I keep your soul tied to mine.”
Emotion surged so suddenly it stole the air from my lungs and before I could lose control completely, I stepped forward and rose onto my toes. I pressed a soft kiss to his lips, letting gratitude speak where words failed. “Thank you, Nico.”