Chapter 3: The Heat I Couldn’t Escape

The words hit me low in my stomach, sharp and hot.

I stopped walking, my breath catching. “You don’t even know me.”

“Oh, I know enough.” He stepped closer, too close, until his shadow swallowed mine. The air between us sizzled, heavy with something I couldn’t name. His scent hit me dark, earthy, threaded with something wild that made my pulse trip.

I wanted to push him back. I wanted to lean in. Both urges warred until I thought I’d tear in half.

His hand rose slowly, not touching, just hovering by my cheek, like he was daring me to lean into it. My skin tingled in anticipation, traitorous, hungry.

“You shouldn’t be alone tonight,” he whispered, his breath brushing my lips.

And in that moment, with the city humming around us and his golden eyes burning into mine, I knew he was right. Even if it destroyed me.

The night air wrapped around me like a cold hand, sharp and sobering after the suffocating weight of the bar. My heels clicked against the sidewalk, too loud, too fast. Every step felt like I was running from the wreckage I’d left behind, but the truth was—I was already broken before I walked out those doors.

Damian followed in silence, a heavy shadow beside me. He didn’t try to fill the air with useless words. His presence alone was loud enough.

“You don’t even know me,” I said finally, my voice thin and trembling, but sharper than I intended.

He didn’t miss a beat. “Not yet.”

That smirk. That maddening calm. His voice was low, threaded with something dark and rich that vibrated through my bones. It felt like he knew something I didn’t, and it scared the hell out of me.

I wrapped my arms around myself, as if I could shield my chest from the way his eyes burned into me. Don’t look at him. Don’t breathe him in.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

The simplest question in the world, yet my throat closed up. My real name felt like something too raw to hand over to a stranger who looked at me like he wanted to consume me whole.

“Lena,” I lied. The word slid out quickly, sharp, like a shield.

Damian’s lips curved, slow and knowing. “Lena.” He rolled it on his tongue like he was tasting it, testing it, savoring it. Then he leaned just close enough that his breath grazed my ear. “You’re a terrible liar.”

My heart stuttered, heat rushing up my neck. I quickened my pace, hating the way he unraveled me with so little effort.

The sidewalk was cracked and uneven, and my heel caught on a broken edge. My body pitched forward with a gasp—until a hand, strong and unyielding, wrapped around my waist and pulled me against him.

The world stopped.

The second his skin touched mine, a jolt shot through me like lightning. My breath shattered in my lungs. Heat seared everywhere he touched, radiating through my veins, flooding me with a fire I couldn’t name.

I froze in his hold, wide-eyed, staring up at him. His eyes glowed faintly under the streetlight—golden, burning, unreal.

And for one terrifying, beautiful second, I thought I might be dying.

“Careful,” Damian murmured. His hand lingered, his thumb brushing the thin fabric at my hip. His voice wasn’t mocking. It wasn’t casual. It was low, rough, like he felt the same current that had just ripped through me.

I tried to step back. I needed to. I couldn’t breathe this close to him. But my body… my body leaned closer, betraying me.

His gaze locked onto mine, unblinking. The city faded, the world tilted, and all I could hear was the thunder of my heart.

“Let me go,” I whispered, though the words lacked conviction.

He didn’t. He studied me like I was a puzzle he’d already solved. And then—before I could think, before I could remember that I hated myself, that I’d just lost everything—his lips were on mine.

The kiss wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t careful.

It was fire.

His mouth claimed me, hot and urgent, swallowing my gasp. My hands flew to his chest, ready to push him away—but the second I touched him, the fire surged, hotter, wilder, unstoppable. My fingers curled into his shirt, pulling instead of pushing.

I moaned into his mouth, the sound torn from me, raw and helpless.

Damian growled in response, deep in his chest, vibrating against my lips. His arm tightened around my waist, dragging me flush against him. I felt every hard line of him, every inch of heat. His kiss deepened, rough and consuming, his tongue sweeping against mine in a clash that stole my sanity.

I was drowning, burning, unraveling all at once.

This wasn’t a kiss. This was an invasion. A storm.

And God help me—I wanted more.

“Damian—” I tried to speak, but the sound broke into another moan as his lips moved to my jaw, trailing fire down to my throat. His teeth grazed my skin, sharp enough to make me gasp, soft enough to make me ache.

My knees buckled. He held me up easily, like I weighed nothing, like I belonged there.

“You feel it too,” he whispered against my throat, his breath hot, his voice raw with hunger. “Don’t lie to me.”

I shook my head weakly, but my body betrayed me again, arching into him, seeking more of that unbearable heat. Every nerve in me screamed for his touch. Every broken piece of me craved the way he made me feel—alive, wanted, burning.

His hand slid up my spine, fingers threading into my hair, tugging just enough to tilt my head back. His mouth crashed onto mine again, harsher this time, bruising, devastating. I gasped, whimpered, moaned—all the sounds I didn’t want him to hear—but he drank them in like they were fuel.

The kiss turned frantic, teeth clashing, tongues tangling, a battle neither of us wanted to win. I was lost, consumed, scorched from the inside out.

The world could have ended right there, and I wouldn’t have noticed.

When he finally tore his mouth from mine, I was panting, trembling, my lips swollen and wet. He pressed his forehead to mine, eyes glowing, chest heaving with the same ragged desperation that ripped through me.

“This… isn’t… normal,” I breathed.

His smile was a dangerous curve. “No. It’s inevitable.”

Before I could ask what he meant, his lips captured mine again, harder, hungrier. My moan echoed in the night, my body melting into his, the fire consuming us both.

And deep inside, beneath the heat and the hunger, I knew the truth—

This wasn’t a kiss I could walk away from.

This was a kiss that would ruin me.