He kissed her hard and bruising, a panicked and frantic collision of mouth and anger and desperation. His lips crashed against hers with none of the old tenderness, only force, his teeth scraping while the taste of alcohol flooded her tongue. There was nothing gentle in the contact and nothing familiar in the way he held her, and the realization struck with cold clarity that this was not love or passion but a man breaking apart and trying to drag her into the wreckage with him.
He kissed her again, hard and misaligned and frantic, catching the corner of her mouth this ti so that the edge of her lip stung under the force. She tried to turn her face away and fought him while his breath scraped against her jaw. Her wrists twisted uselessly inside his grip while his fingers clamped down harder, holding her in place as if resistance only justified the pressure.
"Let remind you," he murmured urgently against her skin, his words hot and slurred. "You love . You loved . I just just let "
She shoved with all her strength, but he was bigger and stronger and fueled by denial and whatever poison was in his blood. His arm tightened around her and hauled her closer as if sheer proximity could rewrite the truth. His grip was not only controlling but punishing, his fingers digging into her arms with an unforgiving pressure that promised bruises. There was no softness left in him and no uncertainty about his intent. The force of his hold made it clear that this was not a plea but an assertion of dominance born of panic and a last grasp at control slipping rapidly from his reach.
The weight of his body crowded hers until his chest pressed so tightly against her that breathing beca difficult. Her lungs strained against the lack of air and her ribs ached from the compression while the edge of the table dug into her back. Her pulse roared in her ears and drowned out everything but the jagged erratic rhythm of terror. Her body reacted before her thoughts could form, every nerve alight with the certainty that this was not safe and not right and not acceptable.
He tried for her mouth again, and she twisted sharply away while he followed the movent without hesitation. She jerked backward and felt his arms tighten in response, the pressure increasing as if resistance only strengthened his determination.
"Miles! I said stop!"
She kicked at his shin and panic rose sharp and tallic in her throat as she struggled against the restraint.
He froze for one disorienting mont and his eyes blinked as confusion flickered across his features, the hesitation brief and unstable before the tension gathered in him again. The pause lasted only a second before he lunged forward for a third kiss with desperate and unhinged urgency.
That movent gave her the opening she needed and she shoved him with everything she had, driving both palms into his chest with all the force she could summon.
He stumbled backward and his foot caught on the edge of the rug as his balance failed. His arms flailed in a useless attempt to steady himself before he fell and slamd into the wall behind him with a hard sickening thud.
The impact knocked the breath from him and a frad photo rattled against the wall above his head while the room seed to vibrate with the sound of the collision.
Willow staggered backward with her chest heaving and her wrists throbbing with the echo of his grip. Her lips stung and her entire body shook so violently that the trembling barely felt like her own.
Miles blinked in a dazed confusion while he leaned against the wall as if he did not understand how he had gotten there. The wildness in his eyes flickered and gave way for a mont to sothing closer to horror.
"Willow..." His breath hitched raggedly. "Willow"
"Leave."
Her voice ca low and shaking with fury and fear while she struggled to steady herself.
He pushed away from the wall and his face twisted with horror and desperation as if he were only beginning to grasp the line he had crossed.
"Please just listen he got into your head Zane always he always wanted you I knew this would happen"
"GET. OUT."
The words cracked through the room with unmistakable force.
He swallowed hard with his eyes wide and unsteady while he shook his head once as if he still could not comprehend the wreckage he had caused. Then he backed toward the door in slow uncertain steps before turning and leaving.
The door slamd behind him with enough force to rattle the fra.
Willow collapsed to her knees as the strength went out of her legs and her hands struck the floor first, palms stinging against the hardwood while her breath tore through her in violent ragged bursts. Her wrists tingled where he had gripped her and her skin burned with the unwelco mory of his hands.
His violence seed to cling to her skin like a second unwelco layer and even as she tried to rise her legs trembled beneath her while her muscles locked and released with the frantic mory of being overpowered. Every place he had touched felt branded and hot and pulsing and raw as if his fingers had left imprints beneath the surface. When she lifted her hand to her shoulder she could still feel the phantom pressure of his grip and the way his thumb had dug into the delicate flesh not with affection but with ownership.
Her breath caught in her throat when she swallowed and the tightness remained from the struggle while the tallic taste of fear lingered on her tongue. As she steadied herself against the wall a sharp radiating pain shot through her wrist and reminded her of how violently she had twisted against his hold. The ache pulsed in ti with her heartbeat which remained fast and frantic and unsteady.
She could still hear the rasp of his breathing and the desperation threaded through every broken sound he had made as if he believed force could fill the hollow spaces where love used to live. The mory struck with such clarity that she flinched before forcing herself to steady her lungs and slow her thoughts and remind her body that it belonged to her again.
She forced herself to count her breathing and held the rhythm deliberately, drawing air in and letting it out again while repeating the cycle until the shaking dulled enough for her to stand without collapsing.
She pushed herself upright on unsteady legs and walked toward the mirror where the reflection waiting for her looked like soone she barely recognized. Her lips were red without lipstick and her hair was disordered and her cheeks flushed while her eyes looked too wide and too bright with the aftermath of fear.
She fixed herself carefully and deliberately by smoothing her hair back into place and restoring her lipstick and steadying her breathing until nothing visible betrayed what had just happened. She forced her face into composure and studied the result until no single crack remained visible on the surface.
When she looked at the clock she realized that Zane would be there in twenty minutes, and even in the quiet that followed the echo of Miles’s presence seed to linger in the room. The air felt heavier and saturated with tension and the residue of sothing broken. Her reflection still looked like a stranger with eyes rimd faintly in red and shoulders squared in practiced defiance, and beneath the controlled exterior she could still feel the tremor running through her.
She refused to look at the door or anticipate its next opening and forced herself instead to straighten her spine as if defying the room itself to undo her. She held to the discipline that kept her upright and reminded herself to show no fear and show no weakness and stay in control while she prepared to continue the ga she had chosen to play.
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