CHAPTER 34 — THE EDGE OF CONTROL
Eva didn't remember walking into Derek's penthouse.
She only remembered the tension.
Thick. Heavy. Electric.
The kind that wrapped itself around her ribs and squeezed until she could barely breathe.
Derek hadn't said a single word since the car ride.
Not one.
He'd only watched her — jaw tight, eyes blackened, muscles wound so tightly she half-expected him to shatter.
She had seen him angry before.
Cold.
Controlled.
Silent.
But this…
This was something else entirely.
The door clicked shut behind them, and the sound echoed like a warning.
"Derek—"
He didn't answer.
He walked past her, tossing his jacket aside with sharp, impatient movements she had never seen from him. He tugged at his cuffs like they were irritating shackles. His shoulders rose and fell with forced breaths.
And then—
"Were you trying to test me tonight?"
Eva blinked.
The quiet fury in his voice was a shock.
It wasn't loud.
It wasn't dramatic.
It was low.
Measured.
Dangerously intimate.
"I—test you? I wasn't—"
"You were," he said, stepping closer. "Whether you meant to or not."
Her pulse stuttered. "Derek, I don't understand."
He stopped in front of her.
Close enough that she could feel the heat radiating off him.
Close enough that her own thoughts scrambled under the weight of his presence.
"You let another man touch you."
His voice dropped, as if he could barely force the words out.
"You let him stand close. You let him look at you like—like he had the right."
Something hot flickered beneath his calm mask. Not just jealousy.
Fear?
Eva swallowed. "He grabbed my arm. I told you that. I didn't—"
"You didn't pull away fast enough."
The words hit her like a physical thing.
Her breath trembled. "Are you listening to yourself?"
"Yes," he said softly. "Unfortunately."
He ran a hand through his hair, the motion rough, frustrated.
Derek Blackwell — the man who wielded corporations and boardrooms like weapons — looked unraveled.
And it terrified her.
"Tonight," he said slowly, "I nearly lost my damn mind."
The confession, raw and choked, slid into the space between them.
Eva's heart slammed.
He stepped closer.
She stepped back without thinking.
He kept coming.
She retreated until her back pressed against the wall and the cool glass met her spine. Derek placed one hand beside her face, caging her in without touching her.
"Derek," she whispered, stunned at how breathless she sounded.
His eyes dropped to her lips.
A slow, devastating drag.
"Tell me," he murmured, "if he had kissed you—would you have let him?"
"No." Her answer came instantly, instinctively. "God, no."
His breath shuddered.
The tension in his shoulders eased a fraction.
"Say it again."
"No," she whispered. "Only you."
His eyes closed for half a second.
A tremor passed through him — small but unmistakable.
When he opened them again, there was no wall left.
No ice.
No armor.
Just Derek.
A man fighting himself.
Fighting her.
Fighting everything he wanted and everything he feared wanting.
"You have no idea," he breathed, "what you do to me."
Her throat tightened. "Then tell me."
He looked at her like she was the only answer he'd been trying not to say.
"I can't think around you. I can't breathe around you. And when another man even stands near you—"
His jaw clenched.
"I want to burn the world down."
A small, shocked gasp slipped past her lips.
That was all it took.
His control—
the last, thin thread of it—
snapped.
He moved before she realized it.
One arm sliding around her waist, the other bracing above her head. He pressed her into the wall, his body flush against hers, heat and power and hunger wrapping around her like a storm.
"Derek—" she whispered, but it came out as a plea.
"Yes," he murmured against her cheek, not quite touching, torture in every millimeter.
He didn't kiss her.
Not yet.
He let the moment stretch taut between them, a breath away, a heartbeat from chaos.
"I shouldn't want you like this," he said against her skin.
"I shouldn't touch you like this. I shouldn't even be here."
But he didn't move.
Neither did she.
His fingers traced the line of her waist, slow and reverent, and Eva's knees nearly buckled.
"Eva." His voice was rough velvet. "Tell me to stop."
She couldn't.
She didn't want to.
Her hands rose, almost without permission, sliding up his chest.
She felt his breath hitch.
Felt the restraint tremble inside him.
He lowered his forehead to hers.
"Please," he whispered, voice fraying. "Tell me to stop."
"I won't," she whispered back.
His breath left him in a shudder.
A sound that was half agony, half surrender.
"Then God help us both."
His lips crashed onto hers.
The world shattered.
Everything dissolved into heat, breath, tension snapping like live wires. Derek kissed her like he had been holding back for weeks — maybe months — poured frustration, fear, desire, and ferocious need into every movement.
His restraint melted.
His control vanished.
He pressed her deeper into the wall, his hand threading into her hair, tilting her head, devouring her in a way that made her entire body tremble.
Eva wasn't passive.
She wasn't overwhelmed.
She met him.
Matched him.
Pulled him deeper into her, fingers clutching his shirt, desperate for more, for him, for the feeling she had tried so hard to deny.
"Eva," he groaned against her lips, her name breaking apart in his mouth, as if it cost him everything to say it.
Her heart nearly burst.
He lifted her sharply, her legs instinctively wrapping around him.
Heat flared.
Breaths tangled.
His mouth trailed along her jaw, her neck, each touch destroying her ability to think.
"Do you want this?" His voice shook. "Tell me."
"Yes. Derek—yes."
Something inside him gave way—
completely.
He carried her, not gently, not roughly, but with a kind of reverent urgency, toward the bedroom. His mouth never left her skin. Her fingers tangled in his hair. His breath came harsher, heavier, as if he were losing himself and didn't care.
The world blurred.
The bedroom door hit the wall.
The lights flickered.
Their shadows merged.
And then—
The scene softened into warmth and darkness, the world falling away as their bodies sank into each other.
The rest was breathless.
Chaotic.
Beautiful.
A tangle of whispered names, surrendered control, and the quiet, devastating realization that this wasn't just desire.
This was something deeper.
Dangerous.
Unavoidable.
---
Eva didn't know how long they stayed like that, wrapped around each other, the world outside dissolving into silence.
Derek's breath was still uneven.
His hand still held her like she was something fragile and precious he wasn't quite ready to let go of.
But then —
A sound shattered the moment.
A sharp, metallic click.
Derek went rigid.
His entire body hardened instantly, like a switch flipping from lover to predator.
"Derek?" Eva whispered.
He didn't answer.
He reached for something under the nightstand — something she couldn't see — and stood, eyes narrowing at the window.
Another click.
This one louder.
Closer.
Wrong.
"Stay here," he said, voice low, lethal.
"Derek—what's happening?"
He looked back at her, and for the first time, she saw genuine fear in his eyes.
Not for himself.
For her.
"They found us."
The lights went out.