Bonds Of Desire

UNINVITED

The house was unusually quiet, almost eerily so. Karen had gone to Tim’s for the night, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I tried to distract myself with a glass of wine and a halfhearted attempt to binge a new series, but my mind kept circling back to Theo. To Dax. To the wreckage of my life I’d been trying so hard to ignore.

I was still curled up on the couch when I heard the knock.

It was late—too late for someone to be stopping by unannounced. A chill ran down my spine as I approached the door. For a brief, irrational moment, I wondered if Theo had come back to confront me again. But when I peeked through the peephole, my breath caught.

It was Dax.

I hesitated, my heart pounding. Opening the door felt dangerous, like crossing a line I wasn’t sure I was ready to face. But the alternative—ignoring him, letting him stand out there in the cold—felt just as impossible.

I opened the door. “Dax,” I said, keeping my voice as neutral as I could manage. “What are you doing here?”

He looked almost as surprised as I felt, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his leather jacket. “I was in the neighborhood,” he said, his tone casual, though his eyes betrayed something else. Something darker. “Thought I’d check in.”

“At eleven at night?”

“Yeah.” He leaned against the doorframe, his smirk half-hearted. “You gonna let me in, or should I do the whole dramatic doorstep speech thing?”

I sighed, stepping aside. “Fine. But don’t make this a habit.”

He walked in, his presence filling the room in a way that made it feel smaller. More intimate. I closed the door, trying to ignore the way my pulse quickened at the sight of him. He looked tired, his usual confidence muted, but he still carried that air of barely restrained chaos that had always drawn me to him.

“I didn’t know Karen was out,” he said, glancing around. “Guess it’s just you tonight.”

“Why does that matter?” I crossed my arms, trying to keep some distance between us. “Why are you really here, Dax?”

He turned to face me, his expression unreadable. “I needed to see you,” he said simply.

His honesty caught me off guard. “You could’ve called.”

“I didn’t want to call.” He took a step closer, and I instinctively took one back, my legs hitting the edge of the couch. “I didn’t want to give you the chance to say no.”

I stared at him, unsure of what to say. The air between us felt charged, every word, every glance heavy with unspoken tension. “Dax, you can’t just show up like this,” I said finally, my voice softer than I intended. “Not after everything.”

“And what exactly is ‘everything,’ Ella?” His voice was low, almost a whisper, but there was an edge to it. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks like a whole lot of nothing.”

“That’s not fair,” I said, anger bubbling to the surface. “You’re the one who walked away. You’re the one who said it was a mistake.”

“I know what I said.” He ran a hand through his hair, his frustration evident. “And I’ve regretted it every damn day since.”

His words hit me like a punch to the gut. I wanted to believe him, wanted to let those words wrap around me like a lifeline. But I couldn’t forget the pain of his rejection, the way he’d made me feel like I was nothing more than a fleeting temptation.

“You don’t get to do this,” I said, my voice shaking. “You don’t get to come back into my life and act like you care, like you’ve always cared. You made your choice, Dax. And I made mine.”

“Did you?” he asked, his eyes locking onto mine. “Because if Theo was really your choice, you wouldn’t be standing here arguing with me.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came out. He was right, and we both knew it. The silence between us was deafening, broken only by the sound of my uneven breathing.

Dax took another step closer, and this time I didn’t move away. His hand reached out, his fingers brushing against my arm, sending a shiver down my spine. “Tell me to leave,” he said, his voice barely audible. “If you really don’t want me here, just say the word, and I’ll go.”

I hated him for putting the decision in my hands, for making me confront the feelings I’d been trying so hard to bury. But more than that, I hated myself for not wanting him to leave.

I didn’t say anything, and the silence was answer enough.

Before I could second-guess myself, his lips were on mine, the kiss igniting something in me that I hadn’t realized I’d been missing. It wasn’t gentle or tentative—it was raw, desperate, like he’d been holding back for too long and couldn’t anymore.

I should’ve stopped him. I should’ve pushed him away, reminded him that this was a mistake. But instead, I pulled him closer, my hands tangling in his hair as the last of my resolve crumbled.

He lifted me off the ground, carrying me to the couch without breaking the kiss. Every touch, every kiss felt like a battle—like we were both fighting to take back control, to claim something that had been denied for too long.

As we tumbled onto the couch, a part of me knew this would change everything. That once we crossed this line, there would be no going back. But in that moment, I didn’t care. All I cared about was him—his hands on me, his lips on mine, the way he made me feel like I was the only thing that mattered.

For the first time in months, I let myself forget about Theo. About the consequences. About everything but the way Dax whispered my name like a prayer as the rest of the world fell away.

....

AUTHOR'S MESSAGE

Hi guys, I hope you've been enjoying the story so far. I'm sorry I haven't been updating much, I've been really busy with college and classes. I'll try to upload more so we can get to the end of the story faster.

And I just started another new story. If you're someone that loves fiction, dark romance, somewhat historical, then this one is for you. It's titled Dark devotion.