Page 35 of Until You Break

Matteo leans back, his smirk widening. “So what’s the plan, genius? You’re gonna turn up the heat, make her really squirm?”

“Something like that,” I say, the beginnings of a plan forming in the back of my mind. I know exactly where to push, where to slip under her skin until I’m all she can think about, until there’s no Mason, no safe little life—just me.

Matteo grins, folding his arms across his chest. “Let me guess—you’re planning to remind her what it feels like to have her world turned upside down?”

I nod, a slow, calculating smile spreading across my face. “Exactly. She’s been hiding in this little bubble of normalcy and clinging to a guy who doesn’t know her, who couldn’t handle even a piece of what she’s got inside her. I’m going to strip all that away until the only thing she’s got left is me.”

Luca watches me carefully, his expression unreadable. “And what happens if she breaks, Dom? If she decides it’s too much, and she really does walk away?”

“She won’t,” I say. “She can’t. I know her better than she knows herself. She might fight it, might hate me for it, but deep down, she wants this. She just needs to remember that.”

Matteo lets out a low laugh, shaking his head. “Hell, I’d pay to see that. The way she looked at you in the beginning… she’s still got it bad, even if she doesn’t want to admit it.”

Luca sighs, rubbing a hand over his face, but he doesn’t argue. He knows me well enough to know I’m not going to back down, not when it comes to Aria. “Just don’t get sloppy. This kind of thing… it’s like fire. You play with it too long, and you might end up getting burned.”

I chuckle, shrugging off the warning. “I know what I’m doing. She’s already half mine, whether she wants to admit it or not. I’m just going to make sure she realizes it.”

Matteo raises his beer in a mock toast. “Well, here’s to your twisted love story, Dom. May it be as fucked up as you’ve planned.”

I clink my own beer against his, feeling the thrill of the hunt, the satisfaction of knowing I’ve got her exactly where I want her.

Chapter twenty-five

Her Ruin

I slip into hercabin with the same ease as before, moving through the shadows, every inch of me on edge, waiting for that first glimpse of her. It’s become almost too easy, like I belong here, like her life’s just waiting for me to slip back into place and take what’s mine.

It also helps that in my family, I’m the best at getting into places I’m not supposed to be. Houses or Fortune 500 companies, it doesn’t matter to me as long as I get what I want. And Aria has made it so, so easy for me.

Tonight, though, I can tell something’s different. There’s an energy in the air, a kind of tension that pulls at me, making my pulse quicken.

I head down the hall, past the familiar pictures on the walls, the little touches she’s added since I was last here. I find her in the bedroom with her back turned. Her movements are restless, almost like she knows I’m here.

Good. Let her feel it. Let her sense me coming for her.

The second I step into the room, she turns, her eyes widening, a flash of something fierce sparking there. Before I can even smirk, she’s swinging a lamp at me, but I catch the edge of it, yanking it from her grip and tossing it aside as I grab her wrist and throw her on the bed.

She fights me as I get on top of her. shoving her hands against my chest, twisting under my grip. “Get out! I swear to God, I’ll—”

“Yeah?” I cut her off, my grip tightening as I press both of her wrists down against the mattress with one of my hands while the other goes to her neck. “You’ll what? Keep lying to yourself, keep pretending you don’t want me here?”

Her breathing is ragged, her eyes blazing as she struggles beneath me. “Why are you like this? You never used to be so violent with me, you’re not—”

“Not what?” I lean down, watching every flicker of defiance in her eyes. “Not who you remember?”

She presses her lips together, trying to turn her face away, but I catch her chin, forcing her to look at me, forcing her to face the reality she’s been running from.

“Tell me, Aria,” I growl. “Are you sure you’re not just remembering me the way you want to?”

She’s breathing harder now, her gaze searching mine, and I can see the doubt starting to flicker there, the uncertainty creeping in.

“I remember you. I remember… I remember everything.”

“Everything?” I smirk, shaking my head. “I don’t think you do. I think you’ve twisted it all up in your head and made it something it wasn’t so you can pretend you were in control. But you weren’t. Not then, and sure as hell not now.”

She swallows hard, the panic flashing across her face as she tries to pull free, her voice breaking as she whispers, “You weren’t like this. Back then, you were… you were different. You protected me.”

I laugh and press her wrists harder into the bed. “Is that what you tell yourself? That I was some kind of savior, your twisted knight in shining armor?” I lean down until my face is inches from hers. “You’re clinging to a fantasy because you don’t want to face the truth.”

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