She looked up at him, eyes shimmering with unshed tears, lips trembling, not with fear, but something close to surrender.

Something she was choosing.

"Please," she whispered, breathless. "Take me."

Ashish stilled.

"Take everything. All my firsts. Just..." Her voice cracked, and she closed her eyes. "Let me forget who I am. Just for tonight."

The words hit him like thunder.

She was begging, not just for him, but for escape.

And that made her even more dangerous.

Because she was speaking his own language.

He knew what it was to run. To mask pain with pleasure. To fill the void with bodies and moments that didn't matter.

And now, here she was, doing the same.

Ashish's chest tightened. His hands hovered over her bare shoulders, unsure for the first time.

But then she reached for him, pulled him down into her, and that quiet plea echoed again in his ear.

"Please..."

He kissed her.

This time, without cruelty. Without punishment.

His mouth moved over hers with a hunger still there but no longer wild. It was restrained. Controlled. Measured. And as he explored her body again, he was more careful. More aware. He wasn't a gentle man, but for her, in that moment, he tried.

He leaned over her, eyes meeting her one last time, asking for her consent. It felt so wrong yet Ashish wanted her. She closed her eyes and arched her back in response and that was all he needed.

He attacked her already bruised neck. He liked leaving marks on her pale skin.

As he descended down to her breast, she gasped out. Ashish smiled in victory at the response. He knew what her weak spots were. He attacked her soft moulds with gentleness at first and she moaned his name making him excited. His other hand pinched and twisted her other nipple while his mouth suckled on the other. She pressed her thighs together in pleasure and wrapped her hands around his head.

When he finally pressed forward, her body tensed beneath him.

He positioned himself at the entrance, looking at her. There was no going back now.

He entered her in one swift movement.

Her cry was sharp. Raw.
It tore through the quiet like glass breaking.

Her hands clutched his biceps, nails digging in. Her head tilted back, and for a second, he froze.

Pain.

Real. Unfiltered.

And something in him shattered.

"Breathe," he whispered at her ear, holding still. His voice trembled slightly, betraying the control he tried so hard to keep. "Just breathe, Nidhi."

She did. Slowly. Shakily.

And when her eyes finally opened again, shining with both pain and fierce resolve, he saw it.

Not innocence.

Not seduction.

But trust.

And that...

Was far more dangerous than love.

Ashish had taken everything that night, her breath, her fear, her innocence.

She had begged for it. Lied for it. Played a dangerous part, and he had believed every word.

Now, the sheets clung to her damp skin. Her hair was wild, stuck to her face. Her throat ached from how loud she'd been crying his name, whispering things she didn't even know she was capable of saying. Words that weren't hers. Words that belonged to the woman she was pretending to be.

She had never felt so split.

The line between pain and pleasure blurred until it became one all-consuming tide that had drowned her.

And him?
He was no longer the cold, distant man who had first cornered her. He moved with possession now not violence. Like something had shifted.

But then came the second round.
Slower. Deeper.
More dangerous than the first.

He was inside her again, claiming, marking, groaning her name in a low voice that sounded like prayer and sin all at once.

And then, just as her body began to yield again, as her guard began to fall completely, his voice brushed her ear.

Low. Curious. Dangerous.

"You're on birth control, right?"

The question cut through the haze like a blade.

Nidhi froze.

Her entire body tensed beneath him.

Breath hitched.

Panic.

White-hot, blinding panic.

Ashish felt it instantly, the sudden stiffness, the fear she couldn't hide.

He pulled back slightly to look at her. "Nidhi?"

Her lips parted, but no sound came out.

She hadn't thought that far.
She hadn't planned that far.
This night was supposed to be a performance. A trap. A single sin.

But now...
Now there were consequences clawing at the edge of her perfect lie.

"I—I..." she stammered, looking away. Her heart thundered so loud it drowned everything else out.

Ashish's eyes narrowed, his fingers still gripping her waist. "You didn't answer me."

She swallowed hard. "I forgot to... I didn't think—"

Something dark flashed through his eyes. His jaw clenched.

And just like that, the air between them shifted again.

Trust cracked.
Heat turned to unease.

But before he could speak, before he could say the cold, cruel thing she knew was coming, She reached up, cupped his cheek, and whispered the softest lie of the night.

"I'll take care of it. Don't worry."

And in the quiet that followed, she closed her eyes...
...not from pleasure.

But to hide the tear that slipped down her cheek.

________

Nidhi woke up to darkness.

The kind that presses against your skin. The kind that breathes.

For a moment, she didn't know where she was. The sheets felt foreign. The air too cold. Her limbs ached. And there was an unfamiliar weight across her hip, a heavy arm, warm, possessive, still.

Ashish.

It all came rushing back.

The club. The lies. The fire. The pain.

She shifted slightly beneath the covers, trying not to wake him, but a sharp bolt of pain shot through her core. She sucked in a breath, her teeth clenching to keep from crying out.

Her body felt bruised. Used. Stretched beyond what it had ever known.

She had asked for this. Lied for it.

And now... she couldn't even recognize the girl who had whispered those words against his mouth, begged him to take what wasn't his.

Her thighs ached as she carefully turned away from him, clutching the sheet to her chest. Her wrists were tender where the belt had been. Her breath hitched when she moved her legs, the soreness making her curl inward like a child.

She blinked at the ceiling.

The room was silent.

But her mind was chaos.

She should feel triumphant. This was part of the plan. He believed her. He wanted her. He took her.

But all she felt now... was hollow.

Was this what power felt like?

Because it didn't feel powerful.
It felt terrifying.

And then, the memory of his question came crashing back:

"You're on birth control, right?"

Her stomach twisted violently.

What had she done?

She didn't know if she was lying anymore, or if she was just spinning in a web she created and no longer understood.

And still... his arm didn't move. His breath was slow and steady against her shoulder.

Ashish Kapoor was sleeping peacefully. The man who had stripped her bare. The man who thought he knew her now.

She closed her eyes, gripping the sheet tighter.

A part of her wanted to get up.
To run.
To shower him off her skin.

But another part, the dangerous, broken part, stayed still.

Because she didn't know where else to go.

The first hint of morning slipped through the windows, casting soft gold over the bedroom floor.

Nidhi was already awake.

She had been lying there in silence for hours, staring at the ceiling, listening to his steady breathing beside her. Every minute felt like a stone pressing harder against her chest.

She moved slowly, carefully.

His arm was still draped over her waist, fingers curled like they owned her. She held her breath as she slid out from under it, inch by inch, until she was free.

Ashish didn't stir.

She sat up, wincing as the dull ache between her legs reminded her of what had happened, what she had allowed. What she had invited.

But none of it felt like hers.

Not her body.
Not her reflection in the mirror.
Not the girl who had whispered unholy things in the dark.

She found her dress from the night before, wrinkled and tangled near the foot of the bed. She pulled it on without looking in the mirror. Her heels were in one corner. She carried them in her hand, walking barefoot across the cold marble floor.

One glance back.

He was still asleep.

Peaceful.
Unaware.
And now... attached.

She left before the sunlight could fully fill the room.

The streets were quiet, the city just beginning to stir. It was too early for shops to be crowded. That was good.

Nidhi found a pharmacy on a street corner that still had its shutters half open. The man behind the counter barely looked at her. She mumbled the name of the pill, avoided eye contact, and slid cash across the counter.

The package was small. Cold in her hand.

She stepped outside into the morning light, blinking against the harsh reality of it all.

The air felt heavy.

She sat on a stone bench nearby, still barefoot, dress wrinkled, hair unkempt. She clutched the pill in her palm like it was a secret. Or a confession.

Tears stung the corners of her eyes, but she blinked them away.

This wasn't the time to cry.

This was the time to breathe.
To survive.
To remind herself why she did it.

Ashish Kapoor was falling for her. She could feel it.

And now, she was already in too deep.

But at least... she still had control over this.

She popped the pill into her mouth, swallowed it dry.

And sat there, watching the city come alive, while she quietly fell apart.