Chapter 105 - 0105: I Want To See The Real You, Elena

Chapter 105: Chapter 0105: I Want To See The Real You, Elena

Elena’s Point Of View

The words tore out of my throat, raw, shattered, and bleeding into the dark space around me.

"I just want to feel love..." I sobbed, my voice breaking into a pathetic, desperate plea. "Even if it’s just for a moment... even if it’s just by one person who actually wants me..."

Suddenly, the passenger side door clicked and swung open.

The cold rain blew into the warm cabin, carrying with it the sharp, unmistakable scent of expensive tobacco, leather, and wet asphalt.

I gasped, my head snapping up, wiping frantically at my wet face as a dark figure slid effortlessly into the leather passenger seat and pulled the door shut with a solid, heavy thunk.

Jaxx.

He leaned back in the seat, completely unbothered by the rain dripping from his dark hair, his long legs stretching out in the cramped footwell. The ambient golden light from the dashboard illuminated his sharp jawline, the faint bruise forming over his cheekbone, and the lethal, mesmerizing gleam in his dark eyes.

Even soaked and disheveled, he carried himself with the same unshakable confidence that had first drawn my attention, and hated, months ago.

"You know, sweetheart," Jaxx drawled, his voice a low, rough purr that sent an electric shock straight down my spine. "For a woman who just ran the most successful corporate gala of the quarter, you look like you’re attending your own funeral."

"Get out," I choked out, scrambling back against the driver’s door, my hands flying up to push my messy hair out of my tear-stained face. "Jaxx, I swear to God, get the hell out of my car before I call security!"

Jaxx didn’t move an inch. Instead, he slowly turned his head toward me, a dangerous, lazy smirk spreading across his lips. He reached out, his long, calloused fingers catching a stray tear rolling down my cheek, tracing the wet path down to my jawline. His touch was warm, possessive, and terrifyingly gentle.

"Security?" he murmured, leaning closer until his dark presence filled the entire cabin, trapping me against the seat. "Elena, darling... I am the security threat. And you know as well as I do that if you wanted me gone, you wouldn’t have left the passenger door unlocked."

"It was locked!" I spat, my voice trembling with a mixture of pure fury and suffocating panic. "You... you broke in!"

"Details, details," he whispered, his thumb pressing lightly against my bottom lip, right where I had scrubbed away his kiss earlier. His eyes darkened as he watched my breath hitch.

"Stop touching me," I dragged out, shivering as his thumb dragged lazily across my sensitive skin. I tried to push his hand away, but my fingers felt weak, useless against his wrist. "Just stop. Why are you doing this to me, Jaxx? What do you want from me?!"

"I want to see the real you, Elena," he purred, his voice dropping into a thick, hypnotic murmur that vibrated straight through the tight space between us. He leaned in further, his dark leather jacket brushing against the fine emerald silk over my chest. "Not the pristine corporate queen who takes Graham’s insults with a quiet nod. I want the woman who screams when she’s pushed too far. The one who’s sick of pretending she’s fine."

"I am not playing your games!" I sobbed, a fresh tear tracking over his knuckles. "I am ruined because of men like you! Graham took my entire youth, my trust, my pride... and now you show up out of nowhere just to strip away whatever tiny shred of dignity I have left! I am tired, Jaxx. I am so fucking broken and tired!"

Jaxx’s smirk flickered, fading into a sharp, dangerous intensity. His grip shifted from my face down to my bare shoulder, his calloused palm warm against my cold skin, digging in just enough to anchor me to him.

"Then stop fighting me," he growled low in his throat. "Stop running back to a man who leaves you in tears in an empty parking lot."

"He is my husband!" I shouted, the word tasting like poison on my tongue. "And you... you are a nightmare!"

"I might be a nightmare, little bird," Jaxx whispered, his face inches from mine, his dark eyes consuming my entire vision. "But I’m the only one in your life right now who doesn’t lie to you."

"Jaxx... please..." My breath hitched, a ragged, desperate sound. I put both palms against his chest, feeling the solid, thunderous beat of his heart through his leather jacket. I meant to shove him away. I swore to myself I would push him out.

But as he hovered over me, smelling of rain and dangerous promises, my fingers tangled weakly in the damp leather instead.

"Look at you," Jaxx murmured, his lips brushing against my cheekbone, gathering another salty tear. "Trembling for me while you scream at me to go."

"I hate you," I breathed out, my voice cracking completely, all my strength bleeding away into the cold leather seat. "I hate what you make me feel. I hate that you see me like this..."

"Good," he growled softly against my jawline, his mouth trailing fire down to the exposed column of my neck. "Feel something, Elena. Even if it’s hate. Just stop hiding from me."

"No..." I gasped, arching my neck as his mouth found the sensitive spot beneath my ear, his stubble scraping lightly against my skin. "No, Jaxx... get out. Leave."

The words were out, but they sounded pathetic, ruined by the soft moan that caught in my throat right after.

Jaxx paused, his lips resting against the pulsing vein in my neck. He let out a low, dark chuckle that sent a shiver cascading all the way down to my toes. Slowly, deliberately, he pulled back just enough to look into my eyes, his face a mask of arrogant, intoxicating control.

"I will leave..." Jaxx purred, his dark eyes burning into mine with an intense, suffocating promise. "...but for now."

Before I could process the words, before I could draw another ragged breath to tell him no, Jaxx reached out with both hands. He didn’t just grab me; he pulled me toward him with violent, overwhelming force, practically dragging me completely off my driver’s seat and hauling my upper body over the center console and directly into his lap.

I let out a tiny gasp of surprise, but the sound was instantly cut off as his mouth crashed down on mine.

The kiss was excruciatingly long, a slow, possessive assault that completely wiped out my ability to think, to breathe, to exist outside of him. His hands tangled deep into my hair, tilting my head back at a punishing angle while his other arm wrapped like a steel band around my waist, holding me pinned flush against his hard chest.

He didn’t just kiss me; he consumed me. His lips were hot, bruising, and relentless, demanding every piece of my surrender. He parted my lips with a ruthless, masterclass precision, his tongue sliding deep inside to taste the whiskey on my breath, tangling with mine until my head swam from the lack of oxygen.

Every time I tried to pull back, every time my gasp for air threatened to separate us, Jaxx’s grip tightened, pulling me even higher onto his lap, crushing my body against his until there wasn’t a single inch of air left between us.

My hands, which had been trying to push against his shoulders, lost all power. My fingers gripped his damp hair, pulling him closer, my nails scraping against his scalp as I sank deeper and deeper into the terrifying, addictive ruin of his touch.

The rain drummed violently against the roof of the Porsche, a chaotic symphony accompanying the sound of our desperate, heavy breathing filling the tiny, hot cabin. The kiss dragged on and on, minute after minute, an agonizing lifetime of friction, heat, and raw, uncensored need that made my bare thighs tremble against his.

He kissed me like he was marking every inch of my soul, leaving a dark, indelible stain that no amount of scrubbing would ever wash away.

Just when I felt completely lightheaded, when my mind went entirely blank and my fingers went numb in his hair, Jaxx abruptly broke the kiss.

The sudden separation felt like being ripped out of a warm current and thrown back into freezing ice.

I collapsed back onto my seat, chest heaving violently, gasping for air as my lips throbbed, swollen and wet from his mouth. A long, thin thread of saliva snapped between us as I stared at him with wide, dazed, completely shattered eyes.

Jaxx didn’t say another word. He just sat there for a single, agonizing second, his dark eyes scanning my flushed face, my ruined dress, and my trembling lips with a look of pure, triumphant satisfaction.

Then, with a slow, fluid motion, he pulled the passenger door handle open.

The cold rain instantly blew back inside, chilling the heated air of the car. Jaxx stepped out into the dark night, resting his hand on the top of the door frame for just a moment to cast one last, sharp, blinding smirk down at me through the falling rain.

He slammed the door shut with a heavy, final thunk.

Through the rain-streaked window, I watched his tall, dark silhouette walk away through the executive lot, disappearing seamlessly into the pitch-black night like he was made of the shadows himself.

I sat there alone in the dark.

The silence of the Porsche rushed back in, twice as heavy, twice as suffocating as before.

My hands lifted slowly, my trembling fingers touching my swollen, wet lips, still burning with the heat of his mouth. The ghost of his hands was still carved into my waist, into my hair, into my very bones.

And then, I broke.

A ragged, agonizing sob tore out of my throat, breaking the quiet with a sound so shattered it didn’t even sound human. I folded over the steering wheel, burying my face in my arms, and let the tears flood out of me in a violent, unstoppable torrent.

My shoulders heaved as I cried, gasping for air, clutching my own arms as if trying to hold the broken pieces of myself together.

"I hate this..." I choked out into the empty cabin, my voice shredded, broken into tiny, pathetic pieces. "I hate this... I hate everything..."

I slammed my fist uselessly against the leather wheel, weeping bitterly into the dark rain-soaked night, completely lost in the overwhelming wreckage of my own life.