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Chapter 28
Noah
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Just when I thought I couldn’t recover from what I’d taken as cruelty, Aiden did something I never expected from a man like him.
He explained himself.
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Not with excuses or some patronizing speech, but with quiet, steady conviction. He told me why he’d pushed me so hard. Why he’d called me out. Why the punishment mattered. And instead of making him seem soft or unsure, it made me trust him more.
It made me respect him in a way I didn’t know I could.
That kind of vulnerability? That kind of belief in me?
It left me reeling. Almost giddy.
He believed in me enough to make me better. To make me great. And for the first time in a long time, I could trust that someone saw who
I could be–and wasn’t afraid to push me there.
So when he said, “Go shower, meet me by the parking lot when you’re done,” something flipped in my stomach.
A stupid little hope flared.
Fantasies I didn’t even know I’d been holding onto rushed forward.
A shared shower. Wet skin. A kiss pressed to my throat under the water. A reward for the way I’d taken everything he’d thrown at me and
stood tall through it.
Instead, he sent me off–alone.
The locker room was empty by then, echoing and still. I made a point to leave the door cracked and used the first stall by the entrance,
just in case…
Just in case he changed his mind. Just in case he showed up. Just in case those fantasies were more than just some messed–up daydream from a boy too far gone.
But the door never opened.
The water ran down my shoulders, and the silence stayed heavy.
He never came.
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Chapter 28
And what bothered me wasn’t the fact that he didn’t–it was the fact that I wanted him to.
That I’d stood there in the steam, listening for footsteps that never came, heart pounding like I was about to be caught.
Why the hell had I wanted that?
Why had I wanted him to find me like that–vulnerable, exposed, waiting?
And more than that… why had it hurt so much that he didn’t?
I dried off quickly, got dressed even faster, and left with my hair still damp, that stupid ache still curling in my chest. I told myself I
didn’t care. That it didn’t mean anything.
That it was just a test.
Another one of his games.
But when I stepped outside and saw him leaning against that black SUV, arms crossed, sunglasses hiding his eyes as the sun started to dip
behind the trees… I nearly stopped breathing.
He looked like a different man out here.
Not Coach. Not even my Dom.
Just Aiden. Still, commanding as hell–but somehow more… human. Like the world didn’t get to touch him out here. Like this was the one
place he let himself breathe.
He opened the passenger door without a word, and I got in.
The ride was quiet for a while, but not in a bad way. His hand rested casually on the gearshift, close enough to graze my leg whenever we
hit a bump, and my brain was already doing somersaults again.
“Where are we going?” I finally muttered.
He glanced at me, then back at the road. “My house.”
I took a breath, suddenly as terrified as I was excited. “I thought you’d want me away from your private life.”
“You are now my private life, Noah,” he said. “You’ll learn that.”
God, I wanted to.
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Chapter 28
And then I saw it.
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A wide, low house with dark stone walls and massive windows. A tall gate at the end of a gravel drive. No neighbors. No noise. Just space
and silence and power.
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
