Sapphire's POV

Darenell peeled my shirt off slowly, fingers grazing every inch of skin with a patience that contradicted his reputation. My breath caught when his mouth lowered to my chest, his tongue circling a nipple before he gently sucked it between his lips.

I moaned, embarrassingly loud, and he chuckled darkly against my skin.

“You like that?” he asked, voice husky.

I nodded, already dizzy from the sensations flooding through me. He kissed down my stomach, trailing fire in his wake, until he reached the waistband of my underwear. His gaze flicked up to mine for a second before he slid them off slowly.

When his mouth touched my core, I couldn't breathe. His tongue moved in slow, deliberate strokes, coaxing a gasp from my lips with every flick. It was too much and I didn't know how much of it I could take. My thighs trembled. My hands fisted the sheets. My hips bucked into his mouth of their own accord as pleasure filled my vision.

He didn’t stop eating me out, even as I kept screaming his name like a prayer. He didn't stop.

"Darenell!" I yelled out, my voice filling the entire room as I came in his mouth. My legs were shaking, locked around his shoulders, eyes shut so tight I saw stars behind my lids.

I barely had time to catch my breath before he crawled up my body, dragging his mouth back up mine. I tasted myself on his tongue. His fingers circling my core.

"More..." I moaned into his mouth, as he fingered, his thrust getting faster by the second.

He leaned down and took in my lips for a kiss and bit down hard on my lower lip, making me groan into his mouth.

My whole body had marks, marks that he had put and made me remember each one. He muttered under his breath as he took in my nipple, sucking and biting on it.

“You’re mine,” he whispered against my collarbone, the heat of his breath making my skin arch beneath him. “Only mine, Sapphire.”

“Need you,” I murmured.

“You’ll get all of me.”

He slid into me with a groan that made my spine shiver. I gasped at the stretch, he was thick, and he went slow at first, as if testing how much I could take. My body arched to meet his thrusts, and he moved with a rhythm that built gradually, steady, then hungry, then mercilessly.

“Darnell—”

He cradled my head with one hand while the other held my thigh up, making his dick get deeper inside me.

He kissed me as he moved, swallowed every gasp, every whimper, like he wanted to devour the sound of me breaking for him.

When I came again, he didn’t stop. He kept moving, coaxing every wave of pleasure from my trembling body until I was nothing but sweat and shaking limbs under him. He came with a guttural sound, a breathless curse into my neck, and collapsed beside me.

For a few moments, neither of us spoke.

He pulled me close. His fingers played lazily with my hair as my head rested against his chest, still slick with sweat. I could hear his heartbeat. Fast. Wild.

He kissed my forehead. “Sleep.”

---

Morning.

The bed was cold when I woke up. Sunlight spilled across the sheets, the faint scent of him still clinging to the pillow beside mine.

I sat up, blanket wrapped around my chest, heart fluttering in that annoying, hopeful way. Maybe he really did care. Maybe he just hadn’t known how to show it until last night.

I got dressed, trying to hide the smile playing on my lips.

Until I heard the television.

The flat-screen on the wall buzzed to life. I hadn’t touched it, but someone must have left the news playing. I picked up the remote to turn it off, then froze.

There he was.

Darnell Evans, in his perfectly pressed navy suit, hair slicked back, looking devastatingly handsome even in the confines of his wheelchair. Cameras flashed. Reporters screamed his name.

He raised a hand, commanding silence. And then...

“Let me make something clear once and for all. I am not married. I have never been married.”

My stomach twisted.

“All the rumors circulating about some secret wife are nothing but that, rumors. There is only one woman I have ever had feelings for…”

I knew what was coming. I knew, and yet—

“Pinky. The woman I love. The one I’ve always loved.”

The room spun.

He didn’t even blink when he said it. He didn’t stutter. He didn’t pause to consider the girl he had buried himself in last night. The girl who had cried for him. Begged for his touch. Clung to him like he was the only solid thing left in her world.

I was nothing.

Just a warm body, Just a legal arrangement.

“You’ll never be loved,” Pinky had said, just yesterday. “He doesn’t even look at you.”

She was right.

I stumbled back from the TV, knocking over the glass of water on the nightstand. It shattered, shards scattering across the floor.

I couldn’t breathe.

I’d slept with a man who had no intention of defending me. Who stood in front of the world and denied me like I was a stain on his reputation. And then had the audacity to throw Pinky into my face like she hadn’t spit on me in that hallway.

I was a fool.

A pathetic, naive fool.

My phone buzzed. I ignored it.

Then it buzzed again. And again.

I finally picked it up, numb.

Ray: “I’ve booked the tickets. You said yes before. I’ll be outside the gate in twenty minutes. Don’t change your mind.”

I stared at the message for a long time.

Ray.

I had finally confessed to him about everything and he wanted me to run away with him. Afterlast night I was planning on cancelling but maybe... This was it.

A tear slid down my cheek.

Then another.

I didn’t wipe them away.

I walked to the closet. Grabbed the smallest bag I could carry. I didn’t even pack properly, I 'just tossed in clothes, my passport, some cash. The bare essentials.

I was done being humiliated, I was going to run.

To someone who actually saw me.