Chapter 163: Melted Candy – Thirty Seconds

NOAH

The moment my lips pressed against his, the world didn’t just stop… it shattered.

My eyes were clamped shut so tightly I saw stars, and for a heartbeat, the only thing I could hear was the frantic, uneven thud of my own pulse in my ears.

Oh my god. I did it. I actually fucking did it. I kissed Cassian Wolfe.

The internal monologue that usually provided a running commentary of my life was suddenly a chorus of screaming alarms.

It was chaotic, loud, and utterly terrified, but beneath the panic, there was a strange, soaring sense of relief.

The lie was gone. The pretense I’d been carrying around since Spain had evaporated. I wasn’t just his assistant; I was a man who had just crossed a line from which there was no returning.

I felt Cassian freeze at first.

Panic spiked through me, sharp and cold.

My heart plummeted.

Oh no.

He’s going to push me away. He’s going to laugh. He’s going to call security and have me thrown out of this palace for daring to touch him. I started to pull back, my face already heating up with the most intense humiliation of my life.

I didn’t get far.

Cassian’s arms suddenly shot out grabbing my waist and pulling me against him hard. Hard enough that I thought we might fuse into one.

His fingers tangled deep into the hair at the back of my head. His grip was firm, bordering on painful, and it completely arrested my retreat. Before I could even gasp, he was already taking over me.

He didn’t just kiss me back; he consumed me. It was rough, dominant, and so staggeringly intense that I felt the strength leave my legs instantly.

My knees turned to jelly, my limbs going numb as the world narrowed down to the sensation of his mouth on mine.

He tasted of expensive whiskey, smoky and sharp and beneath that, the faint, lingering scent of a cigarette and the intoxicating aroma of his cologne.

It was a dizzying, addictive combination that bypassed my brain and went straight to my nervous system.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. I was just a collection of nerve endings responding to the pressure of his lips.

My hands were gripped tightly onto his silk tie, my knuckles white because I was too shy, too overwhelmed to wrap them around his neck.

I held on for dear life, making small, soft sounds into his mouth that I couldn’t control. My chest felt like it was full of fluttering wings, and my stomach was a chaotic mess of butterflies and heat.

We were deep into it… tongues clashing, breaths hitching… when the sound of footsteps echoed against the marble floor of the foyer.

“Mr. Wolfe, would you like—”

Mrs. Chen’s voice cut through the air like a gunshot. I heard her audible gasp, the sharp intake of breath that signaled total, utter shock.

My eyes flew open, my pupils surely blown wide. I tried to wrench myself away, my brain screaming Oh god, oh god, someone saw us, I’m going to be in trouble, I’m going to be executed!

But Cassian didn’t budge. If anything, his grip in my hair tightened. He didn’t even pause.

He kept kissing me with a possessive, territorial intensity, ignoring the housekeeper as if she were a ghost.

He was claiming me, making a point that was as much for her as it was for me: This is happening, and no one is going to stop it.

“I—I apologize, sir!” Mrs. Chen’s voice was frantic. I heard her hurried footsteps retreating, followed by the heavy thud of the kitchen door closing.

Only then did Cassian slow down.

When we finally pulled apart, a thin, silver string of saliva connected us for a fraction of a second before breaking.

We were both breathing hard, our lungs fighting for air in the suddenly oxygen-starved room. My lips felt swollen and hot, and my face was burning with a flush that I knew reached all the way down my neck.

I felt like melted candy. I could barely stand. If Cassian hadn’t been holding my hip with his other hand—his grip so hard I knew there would be bruises—I would have slid right onto the floor.

Cassian, however, looked devastating. His eyes were dark, almost glowing with a predatory, dangerous light.

His pupils were so blown they swallowed the blue of his irises, and his hair, usually so perfect, was mussed where my frantic hands had eventually gripped him. He looked like a god of ruin.

He’s so fucking beautiful, my mind whispered, finally finding its voice. How is this real? How am I here?

“I—I just—” I started, my voice a pathetic, wavering stammer. “That was… I mean, I didn’t mean to—well, I did, but—”

I couldn’t form a coherent sentence. I was trying to explain the unexplainable, trying to justify the fact that I’d just jumped my boss after accusing him of murder.

Cassian didn’t let me finish. He looked down at me, a dark, amused smirk tugging at his lips.

It was a look that made my stomach flip in a way that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the heavy ache building in my lower belly.

“Do you know what you’re doing, Noah?” he asked. His voice was low, vibrating with a threat that sounded suspiciously like a promise.

“W-what do you mean?” I managed to squeak out.

“I’m going to give you two choices.” He stepped closer, invading my space until I was pressed back against the edge of the bar again.

“You can walk out right now,” he said, his gaze raking over my flushed face and trembling lips.

“You can go back to your apartment, back to your peaceful and quiet life.”

He leaned in, his mouth brushing against the shell of my ear.

“Or you can stay here with me… But if you do…” his lips moved to mine, brushing it slowly before drifting back to my ears.

“I’ll fuck you until you can’t remember your own name.”

My breath hitched. I could feel myself getting hard… a sudden, insistent pressure in my pants that I couldn’t hide and certainly couldn’t stop.

Oh my god. What am I doing? I made out with a criminal. I just escaped one in Spain only to throw myself at an even more dangerous one in a palace. What even is my life now? What the fuck is happening?

Cassian pulled back just enough to look me in the eye. “Thirty seconds,” he said, his voice cold and clinical, though his eyes were burning. “Walk away, or stay. The choice is yours.”

He began to count.

“Thirty…”

I stayed frozen. My brain was a battlefield. I should leave. I should run. This is insane. He’s dangerous. He’s a murderer. He just admitted to killing multiple people!

“Twenty-nine…”

But… he’s the only person who ever made me feel like I mattered even though it was in a sadistic way. He’s the only one who looked at me and didn’t see a “side character.” He killed a man probably because of me.

“Twenty-eight…”

Cassian’s eyes were locked on mine, intense and unblinking. Then, he smirked, and I realized he was cheating.

“Twenty-two… Twenty… Ten…”

“Wait!” I tried to protest, but my voice failed me.

“Five… Three, two, one.” He leaned in, his smirk widening into something truly predatory. “Time’s up.”

Before I could process the unfairness of his countdown, he surged forward and captured my mouth again.

This time, there was no hesitation, no testing of the waters. It was rougher, more demanding.

I lost my train of thought completely as the heat flared between us. I was fully erect now, a whimpering sound escaping me as I pressed myself into him, my body betraying every ounce of logic I had left.

He broke the kiss for just a second, both of us gasping for air, and then he caught me completely off guard.

He bent down, hooked his arm behind my knees, and swung me over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

“Wait—what—! Cassian!” I yelped, my face burning as I started kicking my legs. “Put me down! This is—this is ridiculous!”

He didn’t listen. He adjusted his grip, his hand firm on the back of my thighs, and started walking.

As we passed the kitchen, the door was unfortunately open and I caught a glimpse of Mrs. Chen through the doorway. Her eyes were wide, her hand over her mouth.

I wished the floor would open up and swallow me whole. I wished I was invisible. I wished I was blind.

Oh god, kill me now. The housekeeper is watching me get carried off like a prize of war.

“W—wait! Cass—C—Can’t we just discuss this first?!” I tried to reason again but it fell completely on deaf ears.

“No.”

“Put me down.”

“No.”

“I’m a grown man for goodness sake.”

He Ignored my protests, carrying me effortlessly up the grand staircase. I was bouncing slightly with every step, watching the hallway floor move past me upside down.

The combination of intense humiliation and skyrocketing arousal was the most confusing thing I’d ever experienced.

We reached the master bedroom. It was a massive, intimidating room, dark wood, heavy drapes, and a king-sized bed with charcoal sheets that looked like they cost more than my entire education.

He didn’t set me down gently. He dropped me onto the middle of the mattress. I bounced once, breathless and disoriented, staring up at him as he stood at the edge of the bed.

“M-maybe we should—” I stammered, scrambling to sit up, my hair a mess. “I mean, don’t you think we should… talk? Or take a break? This is very fast, Cassian—”

He didn’t say a word. He was already reaching for his tie. He pulled it loose with one smooth, practiced motion and tossed it onto the floor. Then, his fingers went to the top button of his shirt.

He looked down at me, his eyes dark and hungry. “I gave you thirty seconds to run, Noah,” he said, his voice dropping to that dangerous, gravelly register. “You didn’t.”

“You didn’t even count properly!” I snapped.

He ignored me and popped the second button, then the third, his gaze never leaving mine.

Oh fuck, I thought, my heart racing so hard I thought it might burst through my ribs.

This is happening.

This is really happening.

Fear and arousal were indistinguishable now, a thrumming electricity that made my skin tingle as I watched him unbutton his shirt, revealing the hard, scarred planes of his chest.

I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to move. I was exactly where I wanted to be, and that was the most terrifying realization of all.

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