Page 41 of Cruel Submission

The intimacy of it should scare me. Should make me want to push her away and reinforce the walls.

Instead, my arm wraps around her, holding her close. We lie there breathing, the sweat cooling on our skin. My seed still inside her.

That thought should worry me more than it does.

“There are things you’re not telling me,” she says quietly. Not an accusation. Just a statement of fact.

My hand stills where it’s been tracing idle patterns on her shoulder.

“Yes.”

“About what?”

“About a lot of things,” I say carefully. Not a lie. Not quite the truth.

She’s quiet for a long moment. Then: “Will you tell me? Eventually?”

I think about Debra in that facility. About Yanis trying to help her heal. About the moment when Mirabel finds out I’ve known all along where her twin sister is.

“Yes,” I tell her. Another lie. Or maybe a promise I’ll be forced to keep. “Eventually.”

She shifts against me, her hand splaying over my chest. Right over my heart, like she’s trying to read what’s inside.

“The things I’m not telling you,” she whispers. “They’re not because I don’t trust you.”

“Then why?”

“Because once I say them out loud, everything changes.”

I understand that better than she knows. We’re both sitting on bombs, waiting for them to detonate.

“We can’t stay like this forever,” I say into the darkness. “Keeping secrets.”

“I know.” Her voice is small. Sad. “But can we stay like this tonight?”

I should say no. Should send her back to her room and put distance between us before this gets any more complicated.

But I’m a selfish bastard who’s already in too deep.

“Tonight,” I agree. “We stay like this tonight.”

She relaxes against me, her breathing evening out. Not sleeping yet, but something close.

My hand drifts to her stomach again. Resting there without thought, just feeling the warmth of her skin.

She tenses. Just slightly. Just enough for me to notice.

“Mirabel—”

“I’m fine.” She covers my hand with hers, holding it in place. “Just tired.”

Another lie.

But I let it stand. Let us both pretend a little longer.

The night stretches ahead—hours where we can exist in this stolen moment before reality crashes back in. Before she finds out about Debra. Before I find out whatever she’s hiding from me.

Before everything we’re building collapses under the weight of our secrets.