Chapter 20
NASH
The drive back to the beach house is quiet, the kind of silence that feels heavier than words. Blair sits curled in the passenger seat, wrapped in a spare jacket, with her bare legs tucked beneath her.
Every few minutes I reach over and rest my hand on her thigh, needing the reassurance that she’s real, that she’s here, that I got to her in time. She doesn’t flinch, she just leans into the touch instead, like she needs the anchor just as badly as I do.
When we finally pull up to the house, the sky is beginning to lighten with the first hints of dawn. I kill the engine and turn to her. Her cheek is bruised where that bastard hit her, and the sight of it makes fresh rage simmer under my skin. But she’s alive. She’s mine. That’s what matters now.
I sent my guy who provides intel to fix the door while I was gone, and he’s an immaculate job. We go inside without speaking, and I lock every door, set the alarms, then carry her upstairs to our bed.
She lets me undress her gently, lets me check every inch of her for injuries I might have missed in the chaos. When I’m satisfied she’s okay, I pull her into my arms under the covers and hold her until her breathing evens out and she falls asleep against my chest.
I don’t sleep. I can’t.
The reality of what we are, what we’ve chosen, settles over me like a heavy blanket in the gray morning light. We’re together now, openly, with no more masks or hiding. The world will know soon enough. And there will be consequences.
Blair stirs a few hours later, stirring slowly and pressing closer to me, before she pulls back just enough to look up at my face. Her eyes are clear, with a steady determination.
“I need to call him,” she says quietly. “My father. Today.”
I nod. I knew this was coming. I hand her my phone without argument and sit beside her on the edge of the bed as she dials. She puts it on speaker, and her hand finds mine and squeezes tight.
It rings twice before he answers.
“Blair?” His voice is sharp, strained. “Where the hell are you? Brooks called me…said Nash attacked him and took you. What’s going on?”
She doesn’t hesitate. Her voice is calm, but there’s steel underneath it.
“It’s over, Dad. All of it. The arrangement with Brooks. Your control over my life. I know what you did to Nash. I know how you betrayed him. And I’ve chosen him. I’m staying with him. This is my life now, not yours.”
A long silence. Then her father’s voice rises, angry and disbelieving. “You’ve lost your mind. He’s using you. He’s twice your age, for Christ’s sake. He’s poison.”
“No,” she says firmly. “You’re the poison.
You tried to sell me off like I was property.
You destroyed a good man for money. I’m done.
You need to right your wrongs, with Nash, with me, with yourself.
But I’m not coming back. Don’t contact me.
When…if…I’m ready, I’ll reach out. Until then, leave me alone. ”
She hangs up before he can respond and drops the phone onto the bed between us. For a moment she just sits there, breathing hard, then she turns and buries her face in my chest. I wrap my arms around her and hold her tightly as silent tears soak my chest.
“You did good,” I murmur into her hair. “I’m proud of you.”
She stays like that for a long time. When she finally pulls back, her eyes are red but steady.
“There’s something else we need to talk about,” I say, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “Your sleeping. The way you go so deep sometimes. We need to be careful with it. Especially with…how we are together.”
She nods slowly, cheeks flushing. “I know. I’ve always been like this. It’s why the dreams feel so real. Why I…respond the way I do when you touch me while I’m asleep.”
I lean in and kiss her forehead, then her temple, then the corner of her mouth.
“I love it,” I admit, voice low. “I love how deeply you sleep. How your body still reacts to me even when your mind is somewhere else. The way you rock against me, wet and needy, chasing pleasure in your dreams. It drives me fucking insane in the best way.”
Her breath catches and she bites her lip, that familiar mix of embarrassment and arousal flickering across her face.
“I like it too,” she whispers. “When you come to me while I’m sleeping. When I wake up already full of you, already coming apart….it feels…safe. Like I can let go completely because I know it’s you.”
I groan softly and pull her closer, my hand sliding down to rest possessively on her hip.
“We’ll be careful,” I promise. “We’ll set rules. Safe words for when you’re awake. Ways for you to signal if it ever gets too much. But I won’t lie…I want to wake you up with my mouth on you, with my cock already buried inside you. I want to watch you come before you even open your eyes.”
She shivers against me, pressing her thighs together. “I want that too. And…the mask. I like when you wear it sometimes. It makes everything feel darker. More dangerous. Like you’re still that stranger who used to watch me from the shadows.”
A dark smile curves my mouth. I reach over to the nightstand, pick up the mask, and hold it up between us.
“Then I’ll keep wearing it when you want me to,” I murmur. “I’ll be whoever you need me to be. The masked intruder. The obsessed lover. The man who owns you completely. As long as you’re mine, Blair. As long as you stay right here with me.”
She takes the mask from my hand and sets it aside, then climbs into my lap, straddling me. Her hands frame my face as she looks down at me with those bright, fearless eyes.
“I’m staying,” she says softly. “I chose you. All of you. The darkness and the obsession and the way you love me like the world might end if you let go. I want it. I want us.”
I pull her down into a deep, claiming kiss, my hands gripping her waist. The reality of our life together stretches out in front of us, all messy and complicated, but it’s ours.
And I will spend every single day making sure she never regrets choosing the monster who fell in love with her in the dark.