Chapter 64 064

Chapter 64 064

Rayna
The words hung between us like smoke that refused to clear, and I wasn't sure if I wanted it to remain that way or not. On the one hand, the smoke clearing was bound to come with answers, but on the other hand, I wasn't sure I was ready to hear the answers just yet. What if it wasn't what I wanted to hear?

“You want me.” My own words echoed in my ears, and for a moment, I almost didn't believe that I'd said those words.

I stayed close, close enough to feel the heat of him, close enough that my breath brushed his skin. I didn’t move away, and I m didn’t laugh it off. Instead , I let the silence stretch into something taut and unbearable, like a wire pulled too tight.

For a moment, just a moment, I thought I’d imagined it. I thought I was never going to get a reaction from him, and maybe, just maybe, I'd made a fool of myself before him, but then, then I saw it.

His jaw tightened. It was subtle, and anyone else might have missed it, but I didn’t. I was watching him too closely, and reading him the way I’d learned to read machines back home. I was looking for the smallest malfunction, the tiniest tremor that proved something was working under the surface, and I'd seen it. That alone was more than enough reason for my pulse to spike.

There it was. Proof. I swallowed, my lips curving slowly and carefully into a smile.

“Oh,” I murmured, barely above a whisper. “So you do feel something.”

He still didn’t look at me. Still didn’t speak, but his body had betrayed him, and I felt a dangerous thrill curl low in my stomach because of it.

I shifted my weight, letting my knee brush his, pretending it was accidental when we both knew it wasn’t.

“You know,” I went on softly, “silence can be very loud. Especially when it’s this… tense.”

Nothing. I got nothing, but I didn't give up. Instead, I leaned in a little more, my voice lowering, warming.

“I keep thinking about what it would be like if you weren’t so disciplined. If you stopped holding yourself together so tightly.” I tilted my head, watching his profile. “I think you’d be rough. Controlled, but rough. Like you’d take your time, just to prove you could.”

His hands curled slightly against his thighs, and that made me bolder.

“I think you’d hate how much you liked it,” I continued, my tone almost thoughtful now. “The closeness, the heat, the way someone else could make you forget why you ever chose silence in the first place.”

“Sounds crazy, right? But I think you would like it.” I smiled, slow and wicked. “And I think you’d never admit it.”

I still didn't get a thing, nothing but that quiet, crushing restraint.I straightened a little, pretending to consider him.

“You know what?” I said lightly. “Let’s make this interesting.”

That finally did it. He shifted, just barely, but enough.

“We’re going to play a game,” I announced, my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat. “I’m going to say something. Something you’d definitely react to if you didn’t care so much about your precious vow.”

“If you don’t say anything…” I leaned in again, my mouth close to his ear, my words slow and deliberate. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Silence. I didn’t even give him time to brace, before I went straight into it.

“I think about how you’d look at me if you finally let yourself,” I whispered. “Like you’re doing now. Like you’d pin me with that stare and make me stay still, just to see how much I could take.”

His jaw tightened again, but harder this time. And I kept going.

“That’s one,” My breath hitched as I murmured.

I was just about to continue, already dizzy with the power of it, when something I should have been used to by now, cut me off

“The night has come to an end.”
The Mistress’s voice cut through the room, sharp and final.

I froze.

Of course she would. Of course she’d end it now.

I pulled back slowly, my pulse still racing, my skin buzzing like I’d been struck by lightning and left standing. I searched his face one last time, my smile softer now, almost triumphant.

“Goodnight, Zero,” I said quietly. “We’ll continue our game another time.”

As I turned toward the door, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this time… I hadn’t imagined it.

Silence hadn’t won tonight.

It had answered me.