Her Assumption, His Reality

Her Assumption, His Reality

Steam clouded the small bathroom, warm rivulets sliding down her skin as Alina leaned both palms against the tiles. The water cascaded over her face, but it did nothing to wash away the words that clung to her like poison.

“He doesn’t love you. He only craves you because you’re forbidden… once he’s had his fill, you’ll be discarded.”

Lucas’s voice echoed in her skull.

Her chest tightened painfully, the sob she’d been holding since the ward threatening to break free. She had laughed in his face, and acted like his words meant nothing. but here, alone, naked, raw- his cruelty seeped into her bones.

Aaron.

The way he’d shielded her. Paid Cassandra’s bills. Stood against his own brother without hesitation.

Was that truly love? Or was it an obsession… lust disguised as chivalry?

Her trembling fingers rose to her lips, remembering the way he kissed her. desperate, consuming, like a man starving. It had never been gentle, never tentative. It was always possession.

Her heart wanted to believe there was something more, something deeper. But her mind. her broken, battered mind-laughed bitterly.

He doesn’t want you, Alina. He wants the thrill of what he shouldn’t have. He wants your body because it’s off-limits. And when he’s done, when your beauty becomes ordinary to him… he’ll leave you like all the others.

Her eyes stung as tears mixed with the water streaming down her cheeks. She pressed her forehead to the wall, the sob finally breaking free.

Because somewhere, deep down, she knew Lucas was right. She wasn’t Aaron’s forever. She was a temporary high.

The thought gutted her.

There was no way he would burn the world just to have her. No way he would fight forever to keep her. He had a fleeting desire. a dangerous obsession. Nothing more.

Her fists clenched against the tiles as she forced herself to breathe through the ache in her chest.

Then slowly, she straightened.

Enough.

If that was all she was, then so be it. She would give her mind, her body, her dignity if she had to. until Cassandra was safe, until the transplant was done. After that… none of it would matter.

She swallowed her tears with a bitter smile.
“Focus on what’s important, Alina. Not on a man who’ll never be yours.”

And with that, she let the water run over her face, as if drowning out every last foolish dream of Aaron fighting the world for her.

•••

Meanwhile, at Knight Enterprise…

Aaron’s study reeked of smoke and whiskey, but his mind was sharper than a blade. Files, photographs, and handwritten notes littered the desk before him. every single one tied to the man who dared call himself Alina’s father.

“Nothing slips,” Aaron’s voice was a low growl as he spoke into the phone. “I don’t care if you have to tear the city apart brick by brick. I want every move he makes reported to me before he even makes it. He knows something. what Lucas has been holding over her. And I will not rest until I drag the truth out of his throat.”

He hung up and leaned back, raking a hand through his hair. His jaw ached from how tightly he’d been clenching it.

For days now, he had barely slept. His body burned for her touch; his mind ached for her presence. Yet all he gave himself was endless work, meetings by day, hunting shadows by night.

His chest tightened at the memory of her hand in his that morning at the café, the way her eyes widened every time he dared to kiss her skin in public. He had tasted her fear, her hesitation… but beneath it, he had also tasted her.

And he missed it like a madman.

He missed her breath, ghosting his cheek when she whispered against his stubbornness. He missed the way her scent clung to his suit long after she left, driving him half insane in his own bed. He missed the fragile way she tried to push him away when all he wanted was to pull her deeper into his arms.

He poured another glass of whiskey, but it did nothing to soothe the restless hunger in him. It wasn’t just her body he craved. God, he craved every damn part of her. her fire, her stubbornness, the way she bit her lip when hiding her pain.

And the thought of Lucas. of that bastard holding anything over her. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the glass. If his brother had whispered another threat toward her, Aaron would finish what he’d started when he shoved him into the hospital bed.

No one touched what was his. No one.

When the call came through that Lucas had finally woken up, Aaron’s pulse kicked harder. Not because he cared about his brother’s survival. but because it meant the game was changing. Alina would be spending more time by his bedside, and Aaron would have to watch from the shadows again.

Damn it. he hated the distance. Hated that for the last few days, obligations and the hunt for her secret had stolen the time he should have spent with her.

A sharp breath left him, and for the first time in weeks, he allowed himself a selfish thought:

As soon as this ends… I’m taking her away. Away from Lucas, away from her demons, away from this city that keeps chaining her down. Just me and her. A week. A month. I don’t give a damn. I’ll lock her in my world until she finally understands she belongs to me.

His lips curved into a dark, determined smirk, the glass forgotten on the desk.

Because Aaron Knight wasn’t just hungry for her body. He was ready to fight, bleed, and burn down the world if it meant keeping even a single strand of her hair safe.

And God help anyone, including his own brother…who dared to think otherwise.

•••

A few days later…

Sunlight streamed through the Knight estate—warm and golden—but to Alina, it felt like walking through a house built of ice. The air was heavy with tension, every hurried footstep of the staff echoing like whispers she wasn’t meant to hear.

Lucas was back.

Discharged from the hospital, his body was weak, his steps unsteady, and Merlin fussed over him like a wounded prince. insisting he be moved into the downstairs suite where she could hover at all hours.

The house buzzed with activity. trays of medicine, fresh linens, murmured instructions,

but none of it drowned the weight pressing on Alina’s chest.

She tried to keep her hands busy, arranging the flowers Merlin had thrust at her, but her mind was everywhere but the vase. Days had passed since she and Aaron had spoken more than a few stolen words. She had forced the distance, erected her walls, and yet… the moment she felt him, she almost shattered.

Because he was here.

At the end of the corridor, in a perfectly cut black suit, he stood like sin sculpted into a man. His gaze found her instantly, dark, consuming the way fire devours oxygen.

“Don’t look at him. Don’t even breathe his way,” she began to chant it like a mantra, sensing how close he was nearing her.

“Alina.”

His voice rolled through the hall like a command,
low, possessive, pulling at something buried deep in her soul.

…