Chapter 4 The Midnight Confession

"You look like you're trying to read my mind, Mr. Creed," Freya said softly, propping herself up on her elbow, the crisp white sheet pooling around her hips.

The suite was now bathed in the faint, cool light of the moon reflecting off the glass towers of Vera City. Hours had passed since their frantic, demanding first connection. Zayde was lying on his back, one arm tossed over his eyes, looking somehow even more massive and intimidating in repose.

He lifted his arm slowly, his storm-grey eyes heavy but focused entirely on her.

"I was trying to figure out if you were worth the trouble," Zayde admitted bluntly, his voice raw from the exertion of the night. "And I've concluded you are."

Freya's heart gave a pleased thump. That was the response she wanted. The target was hooked, his emotional barriers were lowering, and he was already planning his future with his mistress.

"Trouble?" she teased, moving closer and placing a hand lightly on his hard chest. "Is that what your wife calls you when you stay late at the office? Trouble?"

She watched his face carefully, expecting a flinch of guilt or shame. The profile Lara provided painted Theron Creed as a man riddled with Catholic guilt.

But Zayde didn't flinch. His expression hardened into something cold and distant.

"I have no wife, Evelyn," he stated flatly. "The only things I am married to are Creed Global Holdings and the expectation of perfection."

Freya paused, her smile freezing. No wife? The client, Lara, had definitely said he was her husband. Freya quickly shifted her assumption: Ah, he must be recently separated or denying the relationship to feel less guilty. This was a common defense mechanism among high-value targets. She pressed the angle.

"Perfection is a lonely master," Freya murmured, stroking his chest, feeling the thick, ropey muscles beneath her fingers. "It leaves no room for mistakes, or for softness."

Zayde turned his head toward her, his eyes searching. "You see that, don't you? Everyone else sees the title, the tower, the endless success. They don't see the silence. They don't see that I spend every night managing a hundred billion dollars worth of expectation, and the only conversation I have is with the bottom line."

He sighed, the sound heavy and genuine. "I took over this company years earlier than I should have. I grew up fast. Responsibility became my blood type. I don't know how to relax. I only know how to conquer."

Freya listened, absorbing every word. This is perfect. He feels burdened by his brother's easy life, trapped by his father's legacy. She saw his demands as a metaphor for his unhappy marriage. He wasn't talking about spreadsheets; he was talking about emotional isolation.

"You're tired of carrying that weight alone," Freya whispered, moving to lie beside him, her naked body pressed against his side. "You need a sanctuary, not another expectation."

She tilted her head up and kissed his shoulder, a slow, gentle kiss meant to soothe and affirm his vulnerability.

He didn't respond with gentleness. He grabbed her suddenly, fiercely, flipping her onto her back and looming over her, his eyes blazing with a renewed intensity that had nothing to do with loneliness and everything to do with possession.

"You, Evelyn, are not a sanctuary," Zayde growled, pinning her wrists above her head with one large hand. "You are the opposite. You're chaos. You are the reckless mistake I need to make to feel like I haven't turned into stone."

He lowered his head and took her mouth again, this time with a deep, consuming kiss that demanded a passionate response. Freya returned it, her arms struggling against his grip, but not in protest-in yearning.

"I need to taste that chaos again," he stated, his voice thick with unspent desire.

He moved lower, his mouth tracing a molten path down her throat, settling on her breast. He sucked hard, pulling the nipple into his mouth with an aggressive need that sent a jolt of fire through Freya's core.

Her body instantly responded, the delicate tissue tightening and straining against his assault. A deep, uncontrolled moan escaped her lips, quickly followed by another as he switched his attention, using his tongue and teeth to tease the other breast.

Freya arched her back, desperately seeking more pressure, the feeling of being completely possessed by his touch. The mask had long since shattered; this was raw, primal pleasure.

Zayde moved his dominant hand, releasing her wrists. He slid it down her torso, across her abdomen, and settled between her thighs, which were already damp and welcoming. His fingers, rough but precise, plunged into her slick heat, finding the spot that had climaxed so explosively earlier.

"Tell me what you want, little liar," he commanded, his voice muffled against her skin as he continued to torture her breasts.

Freya's hips started to writhe against his hand, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She couldn't form words; she could only utter sounds of pure, frantic need.

"Agh... deeper... faster," she pleaded, her hands grabbing handfuls of the sheet beneath her.

He responded immediately, plunging two fingers deep inside her, working a quick, aggressive rhythm that pushed her toward the edge again. The dual focus-his mouth on her breast, his fingers inside her-was overwhelming.

Freaking out, Freya let out a high-pitched scream as a second, powerful wave of pleasure ripped through her body, leaving her gasping and momentarily paralyzed.

Zayde smiled, the dark triumph in his eyes unmistakable. He knew exactly how to dismantle her.

He pulled his hand away and climbed between her legs, spreading them wide. He looked down at her, giving her a moment to absorb the full intensity of his gaze, before he settled his body above hers.

He positioned himself, slow and deliberate, and then plunged into her with a long, powerful stroke that buried him to the hilt.

"You were made for this," he declared, his voice a low, gravelly statement of fact, not question.

He began to move, controlling the pace, making sure every thrust was deep, agonizingly slow, and then furiously fast. Freya wrapped her legs tightly around his waist, pulling him closer, demanding that he own her completely.

The silence of the immense penthouse was broken only by the loud, wet sounds of their skin meeting and Freya's desperate, muffled cries.

"Look at me," Zayde ordered, and Freya forced her eyes open, locking onto his. She saw the fierce possessiveness, the complete, unreserved claim.

He drove faster, harder, faster, relentlessly pushing them both toward the edge, their bodies slippery with sweat, the sheets tangled around their legs. Freya lost all sense of time, identity, or mission; there was only the fierce, demanding man above her, and the shattering pleasure he delivered.

He threw his head back, letting out a deep, guttural sound of release as he climaxed, driving deep inside her one last, final time. Freya's body tightened around him, pulling her into a third, devastating climax that left her trembling and utterly exhausted.

He collapsed onto her, their hearts hammering a matching, desperate beat.

Freya felt shattered, not just physically, but emotionally. The sheer intensity, the lack of distance, the genuine vulnerability he'd shown-it shook her to the core. This was more than a job. This was a force of nature.

She was securing the target, but she was also losing herself.

When Zayde finally shifted, pulling her against his side, she rested her head on his damp chest.

"You're still quiet," he observed, kissing the top of her head.

Freya inhaled his scent-cologne, sweat, sex, and sheer power. She was convinced she had found the deep, dark secret of Theron Creed, and she was now irreversibly tied to his life.

"I was just thinking that maybe this is the first honest thing either of us has done in years," Freya admitted, her voice thick with genuine emotion.

Zayde wrapped his arms around her tightly, a protective cage of muscle.

"Then let's make sure we do it again and again, Evelyn," he murmured fiercely into her hair. "I'm not letting go of this feeling now that I've found it."