Chapter 8

The morning light filtering through Julian’s heavy drapes was thick and heavy, illuminating dust motes dancing in the amber gradient of the bedroom. I woke up slowly, the transition from a dreamless, exhausted sleep to reality feeling like dragging myself through deep water.

The first thing I realized was the weight. The second was the warmth.

I wasn't lying on the mattress anymore. Sometime during the night, I had shifted, or rather, I had been shifted. I woke up entirely on top of Julian. My face was pressed into the soft cotton of his t-shirt right over his collarbone, the steady, rhythmic thump of his heartbeat vibrating against my cheek. His left arm was wrapped completely around my waist, his long fingers splayed flat against my back, anchoring me to him as if he expected me to evaporate the moment he loosened his grip. His other arm was thrown carelessly over his face, his forearm blocking his eyes from the morning sun.

I lay perfectly still, my breath catching in my throat. The sheer proximity was dizzying. I could smell the vanilla from my perfume mixed with the sharp, cedarwood scent of his skin. Through the thin fabric of his shirt, I could feel the hard, lean muscle of his chest rising and falling with every breath he took.

I tried to slide a fraction of an inch to the side, testing the waters, hoping to slip off him before he woke up. The moment I moved, his grip on my waist tightened instantly. He didn't take his arm off his eyes, but his fingers dug slightly into my lower back, pulling me down harder against him.

"Don't," Julian muttered. His voice was a deep, gravelly morning rasp that sent an involuntary shiver straight down my spine.

"Julian, I need to get up," I whispered, my voice sounding small and fragile in the quiet room. "I have a morning lecture."

Slowly, Julian lowered his right arm from his face. His blue eyes opened, looking incredibly dark and clear despite having just woken up. He didn't look tired; he looked intensely focused, his gaze instantly locking onto my face. He didn't let go of my waist. Instead, he reached up with his right hand, his thumb catching a stray strand of hair that had escaped my bonnet, tucking it gently behind my ear.

"You're not going to that lecture," he said smoothly. It wasn't an argument; it was a verdict.

"Julian, I can't just skip class because you say so," I protested, my hands resting on his chest as I tried to push myself up into a sitting position. All that did was make me hyper-aware of the way my thighs were resting on either side of his hips.

Julian’s gaze followed the movement, his eyes darkening a fraction as he felt my weight shift on top of him. He reached up, his palms cupping the back of my thighs, his grip firm and possessive. "You can, Tess. Because I’ve already emailed the department head from your account. You’re sick today. You’re staying inside."

My mouth parted in disbelief. "You did what? You can't just hack into my portal, Julian! This is my life!"

"It’s our life," he corrected, his voice dropping into that quiet, absolute register that always made my arguments feel like dust. He slid his hands up from my thighs to my hips, easily lifting me and flipping our positions in one fluid, terrifyingly powerful motion.

Now, he was hovering over me, his broad shoulders completely blocking out the morning light, that mix of absolute obsession and cold, structural control. He braced his forearms on either side of my head, trapping me against the pillows.

"You think I’m going to let you walk onto that campus today?" Julian whispered, his face inches from mine. "After yesterday? After I had to peel some junior’s hands off your face in the middle of a public park?"

"He was just trying to talk to me about Liam!" I cried, the tears of frustration finally spilling over my lashes. "You're acting like a psycho, Julian! Everyone is noticing it. Caleb noticed it, Megan is breathing down my neck because she thinks you're hiding something—"

The moment Caleb's name left my mouth, Julian’s expression went completely dead. The gentle tracing vanished. He leaned down until his lips almost brushed against mine, his breath hot and dangerous.

"Megan doesn't think anything because Megan only knows what I allow her to know," he growled, his thumb coming up to catch the tear on my cheek, his pressure just a little too hard. "And Caleb isn't going to be noticing anything about you ever again. I told you, Tess. I don't play by the rules anymore. You belong in this room. With me. The sooner you accept that, the easier it gets for everyone around you."

"Is that a threat?" I whispered, my voice trembling as I looked into his flat, unyielding eyes. "Are you going to hurt Caleb too? Like you hurt Liam?"

Julian didn't blink. He reached down and took both of my wrists, pinning them flat against the mattress above my head. His grip wasn't painful, but it was absolute. It was the same glass perimeter he had been building around me for weeks, but now the walls were right in front of my face.

"I don't hurt people unless they try to take what’s mine, Tess," he murmured, his voice dropping into that honeyed, dangerous rasp. He leaned down further, pressing his forehead against mine, his heart hammering against my chest. "And you’ve been mine since the day our parents shook hands. You think three years in a military academy cured me? It just gave me time to figure out exactly how to build a world where no one can ever come between us again."

I stared up at him, my breathing ragged, my chest heaving against his. I hated him. I hated the way he locked the doors, the way he tracked my phone, the way he made me feel like a ghost in my own skin. But as he hovered over me, his grip tight on my wrists and his gaze boring into my soul, I felt that same, dark, magnetic pull dragging me under. It was a sickness, a toxic attraction that had been buried in my blood for three years, and Julian knew exactly how to trigger it.

"Julian..." I breathed, my tone shifting from anger to a desperate, quiet plea.

He looked down at my parted lips, his jaw setting so hard the bone looked sharp. For a second, I thought he was going to kiss me—really kiss me, the way he used to three years ago before the world imploded.

Instead, his phone buzzed loudly on the nightstand, breaking the spell.

Julian didn't let go of my wrists immediately. He stayed frozen above me for three long seconds, his eyes scanning every detail of my face, before he slowly released his grip and straightened up. The cool, aristocratic mask slipped back over his features in an instant.

He picked up the phone, checking the screen. It was a text from Jayden.

Julian shoved the phone into his pocket and looked down at me as I pulled my arms back down, rubbing my wrists. "I have to meet Noah and Jayden at the library vault. There’s an... issue with the weekend distribution."

He walked over to his closet, pulling a clean black shirt over his head, completely ignoring the way my eyes followed the sharp lines of his back. He turned back to me as he reached the door, his hand resting on the handle.

"The front door is locked from the outside, Tess. The codes have been reset," Julian said, his voice entirely calm, as if he were simply telling me the weather. "Don't bother calling Liam. His phone is currently at the bottom of the campus lake. I'll be back at noon to make you lunch."

The door clicked shut behind him, followed by the heavy, electronic sound of the deadbolt sliding into place.

I lay back against his pillows, staring up at the ceiling as the silence of the luxury apartment settled around me like concrete. Julian hadn't just skipped my classes; he had officially closed the cage. And as I wrapped his heavy duvet around my shoulders, breathing in the scent of cedarwood and rain, the most terrifying realization wasn't that I was trapped.

It was that a part of me didn't want to find the key.