Chapter 3 Passionate Dominance

Ava's POV

The silence of the mansion at night was the worst. It stretches long and thin, like the breath you hold before the knife falls.

I sat on the edge of my bed, my back stiff, spine straight despite the weight pressing against it. Lucien's cold disdain still lingers in my mind like fingerprints on glass.

Every word he'd hurled at me that day echoed: worthless, nothing, a burden. He didn't scream. Lucien Moretti didn't need to. His anger was quiet, calculated violence, the kind that left bruises on your soul rather than your skin.

And yet, I was still here-playing her part, surviving. But tonight... something felt different. The door burst open, crashing against the wall like a warning shot. I shot to my feet.

Lucien stood in the frame, his face shadowed, but his fury was unmistakable. His jaw was clenched, hands balled into fists at his sides. Something inside him had snapped.

"Come." His voice was ice over the fire-measured but barely contained.

I didn't move.

"I said come."

I obeyed.

Lucien didn't grab me. He didn't need to. His presence alone pulled me like gravity, like a tide I couldn't fight. He walked ahead without looking back, knowing I would follow. I hated that he was right.

His bedroom was colder than mine, with all sharp corners and heavy shadows. The fire in the hearth was dying, and it cast flickering light across his face-angular, dark-eyed, beautiful in a way that shouldn't belong to a man so cruel.

He turned on me the moment the door shut.

"Do you know what it's like to be betrayed?" he asked, stepping closer. "To have everything you've built threatened because someone else couldn't do their job?"

I didn't answer. This wasn't about me.

He didn't stop. "I bleed for this empire. I built it with my bare hands. And yet, tonight, I sit across from vultures who smell weakness."

The fire reflected in his eyes. He was close now. Too close.

"And you..." he said slowly, "You're just here. Watching. Breathing. Existing like you belong."

He stepped even closer. I could feel the heat from his body, smell the scent of smoke and something darker-power, rage, desire, maybe.

"Why are you still here, Clara?"

Because I'm supposed to be watching you. Because I have to see this through. Because I have to stay.

But none of the words came out.

Instead, my mouth parted in silence, my breath catching as he lifted his hand-not to hit, but to cup my face. Rough palm against smooth skin. I should have flinched. I didn't. Not yet anyway.

"You don't speak. You don't fight. What are you waiting for?" he whispered.

"I don't know," I answered honestly.

Lucien's mouth was on mine a moment later-forceful, devouring. There was no tenderness, only fire. I should have shoved him away.

I didn't. Instead, my body betrayed me, heat flooding my chest, my spine melting against his dominance. My mission, my logic, my training-they screamed stop. But my hands gripped the front of his shirt.

He pulled away just enough to look into my eyes. His thumb brushed my lower lip.

"You're mine now," he said-not a question but a command, a declaration.

Lucien resumed his assault, crashing his lips on mine and tugging off my clothes with such violence he ripped them.

I gasped. This was his way of showing his anger, his fury that the meeting didn't go as he planned it to go. He was furious.

His hands grabbed my wrists as he flung me onto the bed. My face hit the soft fabric of the bedsheets as I began to cry silently.

But Lucien was having none of it. It didn't matter to him, whether I cried or I screamed. I wanted to scream, but my body was on edge, and it was betraying me.

Lucien towered over me, his hair ruffled, his eyes glazed with this sheen of raw hunger. He looked at me.

"You'll have to stay still for me, Clara." He said as he slowly took off his belt.

Time slowed down as he took his belt and tied it around my wrists and to the bed frame.

He climbed onto the bed slowly, his fingers grazing my jaw to my collarbone. I flinched and shut my eyes with such incredible force.

"Look at me while I defy you, Clara. You have no other choice." Lucien said, his lips forming into a sneer.

His lips came crashing into mine again as he bit my lower lips and my neck. His hands moved along the planes of her body as he took off her undergarments.

I shut my eyes once more. I just couldn't look at him. I just couldn't see him like the predator that he was.

He took off his pants, his underwear next.

The sounds haunted me. My brain fought to shut them off, but my body enjoyed it. I felt so disgusted. My stomach was in knots as he took me right there in the cold interiors of his room.

He kept on saying these words, "You are nothing, Clara. Absolutely nothing."

They echoed in my ears throughout the time he defiled me till the time I screamed at him, begging him to stop because I was in so much pain.

Blood was everywhere, but he didn't seem to care. The blood came from me. I came to a realization.

Lucien had raped me, was raping me. I didn't consent to this. But I had to do my part or risk being exposed. So I held it in, swallowed all the pain, and gritted my teeth, as Lucien stole my virginity from me.

He bit me everywhere because he wanted to mark his territory. He grabbed my breasts as he pounded me like I was the toy that he used for entertainment.

After some minutes, he finally stopped, falling onto me and breathing in bursts of air.

He slowly untied my wrists and started gathering his clothes. He turned to me, still on his bed with tears streaked all over my face and my eyes still firmly shut.

I could hear the sounds of him putting his clothes back on as he turned to face me. "Open your eyes, Clara." He said, his voice steely.

I collected my thoughts, my heart pounding. I was still naked, and so I pulled the sheets to my shoulders to cover my shoulders.

'Why are you covering yourself? He's already seen you naked.' I thought to myself.

I felt myself blush. Lucien had raped me, yes. But this was the most alive I've ever felt. My body ignited at his presence, his touch.

I couldn't ignore the fact that my body was attracted to him. My heart had enjoyed every second his hands touched me.

"Why aren't you speaking, Clara?" He said, looking at me again.

He liked saying my name, even if it technically wasn't my name.

Lucien was fully clothed now, and he climbed the bed once more, cornering me to the bedpost. He was staring at me intently, and so I blurted out my next words.

"I enjoyed that," I said. Stupid. Stupid.

But he didn't say anything for some time, then he said, "Lie down."

I did. He lay down next to me, not quite touching me with his upper body. I looked up at him to say more, but he was already fast asleep. His chest rises and falls gently.

I looked at this man with his icy exteriors tamed in his sleep. How could I have liked what just happened?

He was a monster in every sense of the word, and he was heartless and took advantage of the weak like he did me. But my heart was a traitor and I found myself wanting him even more