𝐕𝐄𝐈𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 | 18+

Rafael stepped even closer, his presence almost suffocating now. He reached out, his fingers brushing a strand of hair from my face, and I froze. The gesture was so out of place, so unnervingly intimate, that it sent a shiver down my spine.

"You don't get it, do you?" he said softly, his tone almost mocking. "This isn't about your job. This is about you. About keeping you safe. About making sure no one...oversteps."
I swallowed hard, my throat dry as his words settled in the air between us. "Safe?" I managed to say, my voice shaky despite my efforts to keep it steady. "From what? From whom?"

Torren pushed off the desk, his movements slow and deliberate as he came to stand beside Rafael. The two of them were a wall of intensity, their dark suits blending into the shadows of the room. "From people who don't know their place," he said simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "From people who don't realize what's off-limits."

I felt my blood boil at the implication, at the sheer arrogance of their words. "Off-limits?" I snapped, stepping back to put some distance between us. "I'm not some object you can claim. I can talk to whoever I want. Dance with whoever I want. None of this-" I gestured around the room, my frustration bubbling over. "-gives you the right to control me."

Rafael tilted his head, studying me with an intensity that made my skin crawl. "You're right," he said again, his tone unnervingly calm. "We don't have the right to control you. But that doesn't mean we won't protect what's ours."
My breath hitched at the weight of his words, at the way his gaze bore into me as if he could see every corner of my soul. I hated how my heart raced, how part of me felt trapped and another part wanted to fight back.

#3 - morally grey
#8 - forbidden romance