Chapter 238: Wildfire

"I... no! Wait! You misunderstood!"

Pressing my trembling palms flat against his chest, I tried desperately to push Damian off me.

My fingers slicked uselessly across his wet, bare skin, unable to find any leverage. My resistance only made him pull me closer, trapping my hands securely between our bodies.

He felt like a furnace, the intense heat radiating from his bare muscles seeping straight through my thin pajamas. It melted away what little sanity I had left and made my blood boil in my veins. Despite my pathetic struggles, Damian moved with the lazy, effortless composure of an apex predator that had backed its small prey into a dead end.

He was in no rush at all. He held me in a terrifyingly iron grip, his dark gaze piercing straight into mine—so intense it felt as though he were trying to hypnotize me and shatter the last remaining shreds of my willpower.

I intended to break free, but I ended up freezing in place, crushed under the suffocating weight of his dominant wolfish aura. Every breath I took pierced my chest like a sharp needle.

"Damian, I wanted to ask you something, just listen to me!" I cried out as he did the unthinkable, shattering my consciousness to pieces.

His scorching breath burned against the sensitive skin of my neck as the wet tip of his tongue traced a hot path upward, from my collarbone straight to my ear. A sharp wave of sensation surged through my body like an electric current, paralyzing my nervous system and shutting down any capacity for rational thought.

The chest beneath my trapped hands instantly hardened. Every muscle in his body turned to stone, rigid with tension from that single intimate touch.

His long fingers dug into my waist with crushing force, sending a sharp, pressuring pain through my sides. A sudden spike of panic flared down my spine.

Stepping forward with sudden speed, Damian slammed me hard against the closed door. The sharp impact knocked the last remaining breath right out of my lungs.

I was pinned helplessly between his heat-radiating body and the cold wood behind me. In that quiet moment, the air around us grew heavy with an intoxicating scent—something elusive yet overwhelmingly familiar. It enveloped us like an enthralling, heavenly mist, thick and soft in the early morning fog.

An invisible, sweet poison drained away my strength, relaxing my disobedient body until it felt limp as a rag doll. My heart still pounded with fear, beating a ragged rhythm against my ribs, yet my mind reeled from a cruel dissonance—a strange, unnatural euphoria surging through my veins, because this wicked intimacy was actively overriding my basic survival instincts.

What on earth was I even doing here? I was supposed to be sitting quietly in my assigned room, not walking straight into the devil’s den. Perhaps I had simply gone insane from worrying about my family. At the very least, that was how I tried to excuse my sheer foolishness.

"You came to me of your own free will." His voice dropped low, vibrating straight against my raw, exposed nerves.

"I couldn’t sleep! I’m terrified for my parents!" I whimpered, dropping my chin to avoid looking into the consuming, ravenous darkness of his eyes.

As I clenched my slender fingers against his chest, I felt my nails leave deep, angry scratches across his dark skin.

"What if you’re keeping them locked in your basement?" A sharp wave of pain from my own words spilled like bitterness across my tongue, choking me with the agonizing realization of my utter helplessness. I hated him for wielding such absolute power, but I hated myself even more for failing to find the strength to stand against him.

The man froze. With a heavy, ragged sigh, he stepped back from me, releasing his hold on my waist. His massive frame seemed to be battling its own inner beast, refusing to submit, making every jerky, strained movement unnatural.

"I don’t have your parents locked in any basement, Hart, so stop making me out to be a fucking monster!" Damian growled through clenched teeth. Raking a broad palm through his damp, dark hair, he lifted his darkened, smoldering eyes to mine. "If you don’t want to get hurt, get the hell out of my room."

Barely daring to believe my sudden stroke of fortune, I groped behind my back for the cold metal handle, trying not to breathe or turn my back on the apex predator before me.

The moment I slipped out into the bright hallway, I bolted toward my assigned bedroom at lightning speed. Slamming the door shut and locking it behind me, I sank powerlessly to the floor, bracing my back against the wood.

What in the world had just come over him? Why had he let me go when he could have taken me right there?

A nervous shudder rippled through my frame, compelling me to pull my knees tightly to my chest.

***

Lowering his head, Damian slammed his burning palm against the closed door. He squeezed his eyes shut so tightly that vivid, colorful spots swirled across the dark expanse of his mind, like ripples spreading over still water. His chest heaved heavily as he drew in air that was still laced with the light, intoxicating scent of her sweet fear.

"Fuck..." he rasped out, lightly rapping a clenched fist against the smooth wood.

Once. Twice. Three times. He struck it while holding himself back with every ounce of his strength, straining not to shatter the fragile barrier to splinters—just as she had barely held her composure moments ago.

He had never expected this from himself. This shouldn’t have happened. She wasn’t supposed to respond to him so acutely, nor was she meant to stir his scorched, battle-hardened soul so deeply. He had come dangerously close to losing all control.

Exhaling sharply, the young man let out a low, muffled growl through tightly clenched jaws. What on earth had that been? Opening his eyes, his darkened gaze dug into the fine, fresh hairline cracks forming in the wood from his blows. He took a couple of steps back—just to be safe.

To make matters worse, he had dragged her into his own apartment, willingly locking her in the neighboring room. Now, retreating was completely off the table. It was too late. Her poison had already seeped into his blood, corrupting his sanity.

One thin wall. One short step. One deep breath. Everything would spiral straight into hell if he crossed that insignificant distance.

He could physically feel her standing on the other side of her door, her back pressed flat against it. He could sense her tiny heart fluttering inside her chest like a frightened little bird.

If he walked up to the wall right now, his wolfish senses could pinpoint the exact position of her echoing heart with absolute precision. Even if he were completely blind and deaf, he would still find her, guided solely by that maddening pulse—a rhythm that seemed to beat right in his own chest, echoing alongside his own.

He could feel her presence so vividly that an uncontrollable wildfire raged within him, demanding an immediate outlet. It craved the very oxygen currently fluttering inside her lungs. He longed to breathe her in—to consume every last drop of her essence until the agonizing, gut-wrenching thirst tearing at his insides was finally quenched forever.