Chapter 251: Like this

Those words hit my face like a sobering slap, instantly ripping me from the grip of euphoria. My palms, which only a second ago had been frantically clutching his broad shoulders for support, slid sharply down to his chest.

Gathering every ounce of strength I had left, I dug my fingers painfully into his body and forcefully shoved him away, trying to break this suffocating contact.

"Don’t you dare! You! How could you steal my kiss?!" I cried out right in his face, breathless from the rising tide of sharp darkness and my own fury.

My lips trembled, and my heart hammered against my ribs at a near-frantic pace. I tried to scramble off his lap immediately and return to my seat by the door.

Only, Damian wouldn’t allow it; his hands held me with a death grip, like a pair of steel vises.

"First time, huh?" Tilting his head slightly so that a few dark strands fell carelessly across his eyes, the guy smirked. A dangerous, predatory spark flashed in his hazel eyes as he read the answer to his question plain across my face. "Are you really that innocent? Well, that makes it so much more interesting, little bird. But tell me..."

Pausing, he slowly slid his hands beneath my hips, unceremoniously hauling my thighs higher up his legs so that his face ended up right level with my chest.

"...has a man ever touched you like this before?"

"H-how?" I breathed out in a panic, feeling a fresh wave of terror flood my mind.

Fidgeting nervously in his arms, I tried once more to break sideways, to climb over his knees and get as far away as possible, but the interior of the car suddenly felt agonizingly cramped and tiny, shrinking the space around us.

With his massive frame, Damian seemed to occupy the entire back seat, leaving not a single centimeter for maneuver, so I simply had nowhere to run.

How on earth had I managed to sit here before, let alone lie down and sleep peacefully? Right now, this place felt like a claustrophobic trap.

The silence hanging between us after my question pressed against my eardrums with such force that it merged with the frantic, hammering pulse in my temples.

His attentive, scanning gaze slowly slid over every exposed patch of my skin, making goosebumps prickle all over me. I didn’t even realize right away that I wasn’t breathing at all, frozen on his lap beneath that heavy, suffocating stare.

Damn, Damian really was a true demon in human form—of that, I had no doubts left. No normal wolf could possess such a terrifying ability to paralyze someone else’s will with just his presence.

Under his gaze, every bone in my body grew impossibly heavy, pooling with lead until even the simplest movement felt like an insurmountable task.

"Like... this," he said insidiously, and at that very second, his long finger slid forcefully along the inner seam of my jeans.

Right over that sensitive spot between my legs where the ache and burn were already sharpest. It felt so unfamiliar, terrifying, and wrong that heat instantly flared across my cheeks. It burned from an unbearable, suffocating sense of betrayal by my own body, which continued to respond to this monster despite every fiber of my reason.

I whipped upward on his knees, hissing like an enraged snake, and desperately tried to wrench myself away, to tear apart this sinful proximity. But he refused to let me go, only clamping his palms harder around my hips.

"Don’t you dare! Stop this!" I tried to pull my legs under me and brace my knees against the seat, but failed completely, running out of strength. "Out there, your brother is waiting! Damian, stop it, don’t you dare humiliate me in front of other people!"

Tears of anger and helplessness welled up in my eyes, blurring his face. Swearing internally, I hauled back and struck him across the chest with all my might, hoping to inflict at least a sliver of discomfort, but achieved nothing.

I only bruised my own hand against his cast-iron muscles. Damian felt as though he were carved entirely from solid metal—or perhaps his body was simply coiled so tight with tension that he had turned to stone.

"He won’t give a single damn what I’m doing right here in the back seat with my girlfriend," the alpha bared his teeth in a dark smirk, a terrifying edge bleeding into his voice.

In the next instant, he closed the distance sharply, surging forward and completely pinning me so I couldn’t even twitch. The sudden force sent my back slamming against the firm support of the driver’s seat, robbing me of all leverage.

Damian trapped me beneath his massive frame. Then, without uttering another word, he rested his heavy chin directly on my heavily heaving chest, forcing me to look down into his eyes.

"So, Hart, answer my question," his raspy, rumbling whisper scorched my skin right through the fabric of my sweater, making my heart skip a beat. "Has anyone else ever touched you like this besides me?"

The realization that I was trapped tore through my mind like roaring flames. Prickling sparks of heat flared across my exposed skin, scattering inside me as a dark, uncontrollable, quivering dread that immediately seized my throat.

Damian’s breath, heavy and ragged, scorched my chest even through the thick fabric of my sweater, while his dark, impenetrable eyes hypnotized me completely, dragging me into the abyss.

His broad, searingly hot palms slowly slid up my thighs, over my waist, and covered my shoulder blades in a soft yet commandingly possessive grip, cutting off every possible route of retreat.

All this time, I barely breathed. I froze, terrified to utter even the smallest whimpering sound, because what he had just done hovered right on the perilous edge of the permissible. Panic spiked so violently within me that my hands, bracing with all my strength against his stone-hard shoulders, trembled with fine betrayal.