Chapter 61 Yuna
Yuna
“I Wasn’t Ready To Say It”
France felt softer during the day.
I sat on the balcony with my sketchbook open, pencil moving slowly across the page, catching pieces of the skyline that never looked the same twice.
Inside, I could hear Emily.
Water running in my bathroom.
Lil Z was laughing.
My nephew’s laugh made everything feel… normal.
We had been living good out here.
Better than good.
Soft.
Private flights to Disney Paris like it was nothing. Long lunches at restaurants I couldn’t pronounce. Shopping without looking at price tags. Security always there, but far enough not to suffocate us.
Ares and Zay had made sure of that.
Freedom… with boundaries.
I didn’t hate it.
Actually…
I liked it.
More than I expected to.
I shaded in part of the skyline, pausing for a second as I leaned back in my chair.
I hadn’t seen Ares in days.
Not really.
He’d come in late, smelling like cologne, smoke, and whiskey, barely saying anything before disappearing into his own space.
At first, I didn’t care.
I told myself I didn’t.
I had Emily.
I had Lil Zay.
I had peace.
But the longer it went on…
The more I noticed it.
The absence.
And I didn’t like what that meant.
Because it wasn’t irritation.
It was something else.
Something I wasn’t ready to name.
I glanced up just in time to see headlights sweep across the front of the property.
A black Lamborghini pulled up smoothly.
Security trucks were behind it.
I watched him step out.
Even from up here, I could feel it.
He was mad.
Not loud mad.
Not reckless.
That silent irritation that sat in his shoulders and his eyes.
I tilted my head slightly, watching him.
Whatever had him like that…
He’d drop it for me.
He always did.
I closed my sketchbook, stood up, and slipped a robe over my body.
By the time I made it inside, he was already gone from the main floor.
I didn’t need to ask where he was.
I found him in his room.
Drink already in his hand.
I leaned against the doorway, crossing my arms.
“Damn. The bottle always sees you before me these days.”
He looked at me and smirked as he started walking toward me.
“Not true,” he said. “I’ve been giving you and your sis-in-law space.”
“That’s all fine and dandy, but stop acting like you don’t have a heart condition and you’re hiding that heart monitor patch on your chest.”
His eyes narrowed slightly.
“I don’t have a heart problem,” he said. “How do you even know that?”
I shrugged. “You left paperwork out.”
He frowned. “All they said was they heard a murmur. Not a big deal.”
“It is a big deal,” I shot back, stepping toward him now. “Especially if you’re trying to run an empire.”
My voice cracked just a little.
I hated that.
“I was looking for you,” I said, softer now but still sharp. “And you’re never here. I feel like I’m just a business contract to you …and a fuck whenever you please.”
The tears came before I could stop them.
I wiped them like they didn’t exist.
Like, I didn’t care.
He stepped closer, reaching for me, but I moved back.
Not because I didn’t want him.
Because I did.
Too much.
And right now…
I was scared.
Scared he’d feel something that was going on with my body, I wasn’t ready to explain.
He didn’t stop.
Didn’t give me space to run from it.
He closed the distance anyway and pulled me into him.
And just like that…
Everything in me softened.
His arms wrapped around me, and I let myself stay there for a second.
He tilted my chin up and kissed me.
Slow at first.
Testing before going deeper.
My hands gripped his shirt.
His hand slid to my ass, pulling me closer.
The tension shifted.
The argument dissolved into something else.
Something familiar.
He moved me back toward the master bathroom without breaking the kiss, his hands steady, his energy changing from controlled to something more possessive.
His voice low against my lips.
“Just say you wanna fuck me next time…”
He stripped me, then himself. We got in the shower, and he pressed me against the cold shower wall.
No words were spoken as Ares took over my body.
I stood there, eyes closed, fresh, flat-ironed hair curly immediately as he bent in front of me and his tongue swirling around my pussy.
My eyes rolled to the back of my head. Damn, was sex all I needed?
“I can’t believe you’re the one who’s going to carry my legacy,” he uttered as he finally came out of his own daze of feasting off me.
He picked me up, and I wrapped my legs around him as we kissed. He slid inside of me slowly, but picked up the pace. The sound of him pounding me and my moans were all we heard, until Ares said, “I love you, Yu-Yu. You mine.”
I didn’t say it back. Not because I didn’t, but because I was scared to hear myself say it, and then everything changes. He must have felt it, but his next words were, “You don’t have to say it back. Just know I got you.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
He let me out of his hold and then made me bend over. I looked back at him, and he smirked. “Now let me give you what you’ve been whining about.”
He smacked my ass. “You getting thick too.”
Whatever frustration I was feeling, Ares made sure I didn’t leave that bathroom feeling the same way I did when I walked into his room.
The water ran warm over both of us when he came.
I leaned against the marble, calmer now.
Grounded.
Like whatever storm was in me earlier had passed.
For now.
Ares washed up, then stepped out first, grabbing a towel and running it over his face.
His phone started ringing almost immediately, back to back like it had been the whole time we were in the shower. I stayed in to clean off.
He picked up his phone this time.
Didn’t leave the bathroom.
Didn’t hide it.
“Yeah,” he answered.
I watched him.
Something shifted in his expression.
Subtle.
But there.
“…What?” he said.
A pause.
He frowned.
“Say that again.”
I stilled. Just listened.
I kept washing up, though I didn’t yet know what I was hearing…
I knew it wasn’t good.
I finally got out, grabbing a towel, letting the moment shift away from me and back into his world.
Because whatever that was…
It wasn’t mine to touch.
My hand rested lightly on my stomach without me thinking about it.
A small, quiet instinct.
Something I hadn’t confirmed.
Something I hadn’t said.
Something I wasn’t ready to face.
My period was late.
My body felt… different.
Off.
Changing.
But I hadn’t taken a test.
Hadn’t said a word.
Hadn’t made it real.
Because once I did…
Everything would change just like if I said I love you.
I looked at Ares again, still on the phone, his voice low now, controlled.
And I stayed quiet.
Because some things you don’t say out loud… because once you do, everything changes.