Chapter 52
Elena’s Point Of View
I couldn’t breathe. The air in the dimly lit marble corridor felt suffocatingly dense, thick with the scent of dark cedarwood, expensive scotch, and the sheer, unbridled heat radiating off the man pinning me against the wall. Somewhere beyond the heavy double doors, the ballroom hummed with laughter and music, a whole world oblivious to what was unraveling here in the shadows.
I should have been in there, smiling for the guests, playing the part I’d perfected over three long years. Instead, I was here, pulse hammering, every rational thought dissolving beneath the weight of his gaze.
Jaxx didn’t rush. He moved with the slow, agonizing precision of a man who knew he had already won. His dark, storm-filled eyes remained locked onto mine as his hand… broad, calloused, and searing hot, rested heavily against my bare hip, anchoring me in place.
I could feel the tremor building in my own limbs, a betrayal I had no power to stop. Some distant part of me catalogued the danger of this moment, the ruin it promised, and still I didn’t move away.
“You’re shaking, Bambina,” he murmured, his thumb tracing an agonizingly slow circle over the silk of my dress, just above the curve of my thigh, his voice dropping into a low, gravelly rasp that vibrated directly against my collarbone. “Tell me to stop. Say the word, and I’ll walk right back out into that ballroom and leave you to your miserable, bloodless husband p>
My lips parted, a ragged gasp catching in my dry throat. “Jaxx His name was all I could manage, a plea and a surrender wrapped into a single broken syllable. I hated how easily he stripped the words from me, how thoroughly he unmade the careful composure I’d spent years building.
“That’s not a stop,” he purred, a wicked, razor-sharp smirk curling the edge of his lips.
Slowly, torturously, his hand slid beneath the gathered silk of my gown, his knuckles brushing against the bare skin of my inner thigh. I shivered, my eyes fluttering shut as a wave of white-hot electricity shot straight to my core. He didn’t push forward immediately; instead, his long fingers caressed the tender skin, tracing delicate, agonizing lines up toward the lace of my damp panties.
Every nerve in my body seemed to strain toward his touch, aching for something I was too proud to name aloud. Somewhere in my chest, guilt and longing wound themselves into the same aching knot, impossible to separate.
“Look at me, Elena,” he commanded, his voice low and absolute.
I forced my heavy eyelids open, meeting the intense, possessive storm in his dark eyes. He was breathing heavily, his chest pressing firm against mine, trapping me in the heat of his body. There was something almost feral in his gaze, a hunger he made no effort to hide, and it terrified me how much I wanted to be consumed by it.
For a moment I searched his face for some flicker of hesitation, some sign that he might relent, but found only certainty… an unshakable conviction that I belonged to him in this instant, whatever else was true beyond these walls.
“I want you to see who’s touching you,” he growled, his thumb ghosting over the swollen seam of my lace. “I want you to remember this face every single time that weak bastard tries to lay a finger on you p>
He hooked his fingers under the damp silk edge, sliding the fabric aside, and pressed the flat of his thumb directly against my sensitive, aching center.
I arched off the wall with a sharp, choked gasp, my fingers instantly clawing into the lapels of his dark suit jacket just to keep my knees from buckling completely. “Oh, God p>
“Not God, baby,” Jaxx whispered against my ear, his teeth lightly grazing my sensitive earlobe before his hot tongue licked a trail down the side of my neck. “Just me p>
He applied a firm, slow pressure, circling his thumb with a devastating rhythm that made my hips instinctively roll forward, chasing the friction. A slick, wet sound filled the narrow space between us, exposing just how helpless my body was under his command. Shame and desire tangled together inside me, indistinguishable, both burning just as fiercely.
I thought of the ballroom just beyond the doors, of the man I’d married standing somewhere among the crowd, and the thought only made the ache between my thighs sharper, more urgent, more impossible to deny.
“Look at how wet you are for me,” he rasped, his breath hot against my flushed skin. “Soaked through lace, trembling like a leaf, grinding against my hand in your husband’s corridor. You’re starving for this, aren’t you p>
“I… I shouldn’t I whimpered, my head tossing back against the cold marble, completely undone by the agonizing slow burn of his touch. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a small, rational voice reminded me of everything I stood to lose, but it was drowned beneath the roar of my own pulse.
“But you are,” Jaxx countermanded, his voice dropping an octave into a dark, guttural command. “You came down this hallway knowing I’d follow. You wanted this ruin, Bambina. You wanted a real man to take what he neglected p>
Slowly, agonizingly, he slid the pad of his middle finger down my dripping seam, teasing the sensitive opening before sinking the tip inside. Just the tip. He held it there, letting me feel the sheer width and heat of his finger stretching me open, savoring my helpless reaction with an almost cruel patience.
“Jaxx, please I sobbed softly, shameless, desperate, and completely consumed.
“Please what?” he growled, his eyes burning into mine with ruthless intensity. “Tell me what you need, Elena. Use your words p>
“I need… I need you inside me,” I whispered, the confession tearing from my chest like a confession of sin. “Please… don’t stop p>
A dark, victorious growl echoed deep in his throat. He didn’t hesitate anymore. He slid one long finger all the way in… slow, deep, and unyielding, until his palm pressed flat against my wet core.
My body jerked violently, a loud, helpless moan breaking through my lips, echoing off the high ceilings of the quiet hallway. Before I could catch my breath, he added a second finger, spreading me wider, filling me until I felt every thick, calloused inch of him stretching my tight, starved walls. The stretch bordered on overwhelming, a delicious ache that blurred the line between pleasure and pain. My fingers dug harder into his jacket, seeking any anchor against the storm building inside me.
“Fuck,” he hissed through clenched teeth, his jaw tightening as he felt my body clench desperately around him. “Look how tight you are. Just two fingers and you’re already fighting to take me p>
He began to move. Slow at first, dragging his fingers out until only the tips remained, letting the cool air hit my dripping heat, before plunging back in with absolute, possessive purpose. My hips lifted off the wall, meeting every stroke, chasing the violent, intoxicating friction. I no longer cared who might hear, who might wander too close to the corridor… there was only the relentless rhythm of his hand and the mounting pressure threatening to shatter me completely.
“You like that?” he murmured against my throat, his lips pressing hard against my pulsing vein. “That’s me taking what belongs to me. Stretching you. Reminding you what a real touch feels like p>
He twisted his wrist, his fingers curling upward, hitting that exact, agonizing spot deep inside me.
A high-pitched scream caught in my throat, my hands flying up to grip his broad forearms, my thighs trembling violently around his hand. Wave after wave of intense, blinding heat coiled tight in the pit of my stomach, pulling me toward the edge of an abyss I had never known existed. I clung to him as if he were the only solid thing left in a world that had tilted entirely off its axis, every part of me surrendering to sensations I couldn’t name and didn’t want to escape.
“That’s it, Bambina,” Jaxx growled, his thumb pressing down on my clit with ruthless, devastating pressure, circling it in pace with his deep, rhythmic thrusts. “Give it to me. Let it break you. I want to fuck every trace of that cold, dead marriage straight out of your head p>
His strokes turned faster, harder, the wet, explicit sounds of his palm slapping against my drenched flesh echoing loudly in the secluded corridor. I was sobbing, moaning, arching my back, completely shameless, riding his hand like a woman starved for air. Nothing existed beyond this narrow stretch of marble and shadow, beyond the man whose touch had unraveled every careful wall I’d built.
“Jaxx… Jaxx, I’m… I’m going to p>
“Come for me,” he ordered darkly, his eyes fixed on mine, watching the exact moment control slipped away from me completely. “Look at me while you break p>
The orgasm slammed into me with savage, violent force. My internal walls clamped around his fingers in tight, frantic spasms, my entire body shaking uncontrollably as a blinding explosion of pleasure tore through my core. I cried out… raw, broken, and completely undone, as wave after wave of intense heat washed over me, leaving me gasping and hollowed out in the best possible way. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, born not of sadness but of sheer overwhelming release.
And through it all, Jaxx never broke eye contact. He watched every tremor, felt every violent clench of my body, absorbing my undone state with a dark, satisfied smirk, as though witnessing my surrender were more intoxicating to him than any pleasure of his own. There was something possessive in the way he studied me, as if committing every detail of my unraveling to memory, determined never to forget it.
Slowly, agonizingly, he dragged his slick fingers out of my dripping heat.
I stood there against the wall, chest heaving, legs trembling so badly I could barely support my own weight. My mind was a haze, thoughts scattered like glass, unable to piece together anything beyond the man in front of me. Somewhere far away, the music still played, oblivious to the fact that I would never walk back into that ballroom quite the same woman who had left it.
Jaxx lifted his wet hand between our faces. His fingers glistened, coated entirely in my slick essence. With slow, deliberate arrogance, he brought his fingers to his lips and slid them into his mouth, sucking them clean with a low, deep groan that vibrated through his chest, his eyes never once leaving mine as he savored the taste of what he’d done to me.
His dark eyes flashed with a lethal, dangerous fire as he looked down at me.
“You taste like pure sin, Bambina,” he whispered, his voice thick and possessive. “And I’m never going to get enough of you p>