CHAPTER 39: CHAPTER 39

Olivia’s POV

I tried to struggle against his hold, but he held me firmly against the wall. He was way too strong - I couldn’t move even an inch. My heart was pounding so hard I was sure he could feel it through my back.

"Answer me, Livy," his voice was a dangerous growl against my ear. "What do you think you’re doing, snooping around and asking for CCTV footages?"

I mumbled frantically against his palm, every instinct in my body screaming for help. This had gone too far. I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t let this terrifying, obsessive man deeper into my life. The revelation about the hacked security system had changed everything - this wasn’t just some mysterious romantic encounter anymore. This was completely dangerous.

He must have noticed my desperate attempts to call out because his grip tightened, and he leaned closer, his voice dropping to a threatening whisper.

"Don’t even think about screaming, mi amor. We both know no one will hear you back here, and even if they did..." He paused, letting the threat hang in the air. "Well, let’s just say it wouldn’t end well for anyone who tried to interfere."

Only then did his hand finally slip from my mouth, but he shifted slightly against the wall, and I could feel the solid wall of his chest against my back.

I gasped for air, my chest heaving as I tried to find my voice.

"Answer me," he repeated, his tone dangerously calm now. "What were you doing in there?"

I struggled to form words, my mind racing for some explanation that wouldn’t make him angrier. "I... I just wanted to..."

"You just wanted to what?" His voice was filled with disappointment. "To betray my trust? To hunt me down like some common criminal?"

"I’m a human being!" The words burst out of me before I could stop them. "It’s normal to be curious! I just wanted to know who you were!"

He was quiet for a long moment, and I could feel his breath against my neck as he processed my words.

"Curious," he repeated slowly, as if tasting the word. "Curious enough to risk everything we have together?"

"What do we have together?" I demanded, finding some courage in my desperation. "You’re a stranger who appears and disappears, who knows things about me that you shouldn’t know, who can apparently hack security systems like it’s nothing! How am I supposed to trust someone I don’t even know?"

His laughed humorlessly. "Trust? Oh, Livy. You still don’t understand, do you?"

"Understand what?"

"This isn’t about trust. This is about inevitability." His free hand traced down my arm, and despite everything, my body betrayed me by responding to his touch. "This connection between us... it’s bigger than your little fears about knowing my name."

"That’s not enough for me," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "I need to know who you are before I can let you touch me again."

For a moment, he was silent, his body tense against mine.

Then he laughed - a dark, amused sound that made my skin crawl and tingle at the same time.

"Let me touch you?" he murmured, his voice dropping to that seductive whisper that always made my knees weak. "Oh, ma chérie, you think you have a choice in this?"

Before I could respond, his hand moved to cup my breast beneath my sweater, his thumb tracing and pinching my nipples softly. My body arched against him involuntarily, a soft gasp escaping my lips.

*Thank God I didn’t wear a bra.*

"You see?" he whispered triumphantly. "Your body knows the truth even when your mind fights it. You have no control when I’m near. You could never stop me from touching you."

"Stop," I breathed, even as my treacherous body leaned into his touch.

"Stop?" His other hand slid down to rest on my hip, pulling me closer against him. "Your mouth says stop, but your body is already melting for me. Which should I believe, Livy?"

I closed my eyes, fighting against the sensations he was creating. "I’m seeing someone," I blurted out desperately.

His hands stilled against my breast. For a moment, the only sound in the alley was our breathing.

Then he scoffed - a sound filled with such dismissive arrogance that it made my anger flare.

"Seeing someone?" He sounded almost bored. "That’s impossible."

"It’s not impossible. His name is Gabriel, and we..."

"No." His voice cut through my words like a blade. "You have me. That’s all you need."

The possessive certainty in his voice should have terrified me. Instead, it sent a shameful thrill through my body.

"You can’t just decide that," I protested weakly.

"I’m not deciding anything, mi amor. I’m simply stating facts." His mouth was so close to my ear that his lips brushed against it as he spoke. "You belong to me. You’ve belonged to me since the moment I first touched you. This Gabriel..." He said the name like it tasted bitter. "He’s nothing. A distraction. A placeholder until you accept what you already know."

"You’re insane," I whispered.

"Am I?" His hands left my breast, now sliding up to tangle in my hair while the other hand traced patterns down my waist toward my pussy. "Tell me you don’t think about me every minute of every day. Tell me you don’t touch yourself at night, remembering how I made you feel."

Heat flooded my cheeks because even though I hadn’t done it, i had reminisced our encounters countless times.

"Tell me," he continued, his voice becoming softer, more seductive, "that this Gabriel can make you wet with just a simple touch. Can make you shiver by just being near, Can make you feel the things I make you feel."

I opened my mouth to deny it, because Gabriel did make me feel things - though not this intense, but I couldn’t utter a single word.

"That’s what I thought." His tone shifted again, becoming tender, almost loving. "Mi amor, why do you fight this? Why do you fight us?"

"Because I don’t even know your name," I said desperately.

"Names are just words, Livy. What we have... this goes deeper than names. This goes deeper than anything you could ever have with anyone else." His voice became a caress against my ear. "I would do anything for you. Anything at all. All you have to do is ask."

Something in his tone - the complete honesty, the raw devotion - made me believe him. And suddenly, an idea formed in my mind. A terrible, reckless idea.

"Anything?" I asked quietly.

"Anything."

"Then help me deal with my boss," I blurted out before I could stop myself. "Maxwell Wellington. He’s making my life hell, and I need... I need him to suffer the way he’s making me suffer."

There was a long pause. I felt him go very still behind me, and for a moment I wondered if I’d made a terrible mistake.

Then he spoke, and his voice was different somehow - colder.

"Maxwell Wellington," he repeated slowly, as if testing the name.

"He’s this arrogant, sadistic CEO who seems to get pleasure from destroying people. He fired me for being late, then rehired me as his personal assistant just so he could torture me with impossible demands and humiliate me every day. He’s trying to break me, and I..." My voice caught. "I can’t let him win."

"Wellington & Sons," he murmured, and something in his tone made me turn my head slightly, trying to see his face in the darkness.

"You know him?"

Another pause, longer this time. When he spoke again, his voice had returned to that intimate whisper, but there was something new in it - something that I couldn’t identify.

"Consider it done," he breathed against my neck, and the certainty in those three words sent a shiver down my spine.

"What do you mean, consider it done?"

But he was already stepping back, releasing me from the wall. I spun around frantically, trying to catch a glimpse of his face, but the alley was too dark and he was already melting back into the shadows.

"Wait!" I called out. "What are you going to do?"

His voice came from somewhere in the darkness, already distant.

"Sweet dreams, mi amor."

And then he was gone, leaving me alone in the dark alley with my heart racing and my mind spinning with questions I was afraid to answer.

*What the fuck did I just do?*