Chapter 5 Too Fast

Meera's POV

The city was a sea of lights, a thousand stars scattered across the earth instead of the sky. From the penthouse windows, London seemed endless, cold and beautiful, untouchable. I pressed my hand lightly against the glass, almost as though I could absorb its brilliance into my skin. But even the glow of Canary Wharf at night couldn't compete with the heat of the man behind me.

Damien Cross.

Or the man I believed to be him.

I hadn't planned this. If I had been sensible, I would have told him goodnight at the car, left him with a polite smile and the safety of distance. Sensible women didn't follow billionaires' home after two weeks of knowing them. Sensible women didn't step into glass towers and penthouses that reeked of power and privilege. But every instinct of mine that used to lean toward sense had evaporated the moment his hand grazed mine at the gala.

And tonight... tonight, I didn't want to be sensible.

I heard him before I turned, the steady rhythm of his breathing, the faint clink as he set down his glass. When I finally faced him, his eyes were waiting, dark and fixed on me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.

"You have quite the view," I said, because it was easier than saying the truth: that it was him I couldn't stop looking at.

His lips curved into the kind of smile that was more dangerous than any sharp edge. "I was about to say the same thing."

Heat flooded my cheeks. I wanted to roll my eyes, to laugh, but I couldn't. The way he looked at me stole the ground from under my feet. I had dated before, of course. Men who were charming, some even handsome. But no one had ever looked at me like I was oxygen, like my very presence sustained them.

And I should have run from that look. But instead, I stood there, frozen, drawn deeper into his orbit.

He moved toward me, slow, deliberate, a predator unhurried by the certainty of his capture. By the time his fingers brushed a strand of hair from my face, my breath had caught in my throat.

"You don't belong in a world this cold," he murmured, his voice low, intimate. "You deserve warmth. Fire."

My lips parted. His thumb grazed my jaw, and something in me shattered.

"Damien..." The name escaped like a secret.

"Say it again," he ordered, though his tone was silk, not steel.

"Damien."

The sound of his name on my lips lit something raw in his eyes, something I didn't yet understand. But before I could, his mouth claimed mine.

The kiss wasn't tentative, it was deliberate, staking a claim I hadn't realized I had been holding open. My knees weakened, my body swayed into his as if I had no control left. His taste was intoxicating, champagne laced with hunger. His hand slid to the small of my back, pulling me against him. I felt the hard, undeniable evidence of his desire pressing into me, and the shock of it sent a thrill racing through my veins.

I should have slowed us down. But instead, my hands betrayed me, clutching his shirt, pulling him closer. The world fell away. All that existed was his mouth, his hands, his heat.

By the time my back hit the cushions of the couch, I was breathless, trembling. He hovered above me, eyes blazing, and for a moment, he just looked as though he was trying to memorize me. Then his restraint snapped.

His jacket and tie hit the floor, his shirt opening with a flick of his fingers. My eyes traced the hard lines of his chest, the play of muscle beneath his skin. I wanted to look away, to keep some shred of control, but I couldn't.

"Do you want this?" His voice was rough, edged with a hunger that made my pulse race.

"Yes," I whispered. The word was fragile but true.

And then there was no going back.

His mouth moved over me with urgency, each kiss branding me. My dress slipped down, baring my shoulders, my chest, and his lips followed, leaving fire in their wake. I arched under him, my body responding with a ferocity that startled me. I had never felt like this not this alive, not this undone.

Every movement was both demand and worship. His hands cupped me possessively, as if to remind me that in this moment, I belonged to him. But there was tenderness too, the way he slowed when I gasped, the way he kissed the hesitation from my lips.

By the time he entered me, the city outside had ceased to exist. There was only the sound of his voice whispering my name, the feel of his body moving against mine, the way pleasure rose in waves that drowned out thought.

It was raw, consuming, almost violent in its intensity. And yet, somewhere in the chaos, there was also gentleness, the brush of his hand against my cheek, the press of his lips to my temple. A contradiction I couldn't reconcile, but one I didn't want to question.

I clung to him, nails digging into his skin, every cry torn from me met with his own growl of need. We moved together as though we had always known how, as though our bodies had been waiting for this exact collision. Again and again, until the world splintered, until I forgot where I ended and he began.

When at last it was over, I lay tangled in his arms, skin slick, chest heaving, my mind a haze of sensation. The city's dawn light crept in through the glass walls, painting us in pale gold.

For a moment, I thought I might weep. Because I had never let go like that. Because I had never trusted anyone enough to break apart in their arms. And because, terrifyingly, I knew I would do it again.

I drifted into sleep against his chest, lulled by the steady beat of his heart.

When I woke, the sheets smelled of him, warm and musky. He stood by the balcony, the city spread out behind him, his body cast in silhouette. For a second, I thought I was dreaming again. He looked too perfect, too untouchable.

"Good morning," I whispered, my voice still thick with sleep.

He turned, and the rawness in his eyes struck me like a blow. He came to me, took my hand, and sat at the edge of the bed.

"Meera," he said, his voice husky, stripped bare of charm. "I have built empires. I have bought everything a man could ever want. But last night..." His throat worked as if the words cost him. "Last night was the first time I felt like I wasn't empty inside."

My chest tightened. I wasn't sure what to say. So I squeezed his hand, trying to let him feel the truth of my heart through touch alone.

He lifted my fingers to his lips, kissed them gently. Then his gaze held mine, unflinching.

"Marry me."

The words hit me like thunder.

"What?" I breathed, certain I had misheard.

"Marry me," he repeated, firmer now. "Be mine. Not for tonight, not for a season. Forever."

I stared at him, stunned. This was insane. It had been two weeks, a dizzying whirlwind of jet planes, rooftop dinners, and a night that had left me trembling in ways I didn't know I could tremble. No rational woman would say yes.

And yet... rationality seemed laughable now.

I thought of the way he had looked at me across champagne flutes, as though I was the only person in the room. The way he had held me like I was precious even in the heat of passion. The way he made me feel both weak and invincible at once.

Tears pricked my eyes, unbidden. "Yes," I whispered. My voice trembled, but the truth didn't. "Yes, Damien."

His relief was visceral, a rush of heat and joy that poured out of him as he pulled me into his arms. His mouth crashed into mine, desperate, triumphant. I laughed against his lips, breathless, lightheaded, unable to believe what I had just agreed to but too overwhelmed to regret it.

He held me like a man who had conquered the world but found his victory in a single person. And in that moment, I believed him. I believed us.

Still, as he kissed me, as his laughter filled the hollow corners of the penthouse, a faint unease curled in my chest. A prickle at the back of my neck, the sense of being watched.

I pushed it away. Told myself it was the exhaustion, the rush, the sheer insanity of it all.

But as I nestled into his arms, one thought refused to leave me:

What if the city outside wasn't celebrating us? What if, in its shadows, something darker had already begun to stir?