Chapter 8 The Kiss of Control

Selena’s eyelids fluttered open, heavy with exhaustion, and the first thing she registered was warmth. The steady, rhythmic beat against her back, the faint scent of pine and smoke, the steady weight of someone cradling her—it was Damian. He held her with a careful gentleness that was almost foreign to the man she had just seen unravel in the surge of moonlight and unleashed power.

She tried to sit up, but the effort left her trembling, drained beyond reason. Damian shifted immediately, his hands firm against her shoulders, stopping her movement. “Easy,” he murmured, voice low, human again, the raw edge of the beast suppressed behind his careful control. “You’re… safe.”

Selena’s gaze met his, searching, demanding, unsure if she could trust the calm after the storm. His eyes, dark pools that still held shadows of what had been, softened as he brushed a strand of hair from her face. “I almost lost myself,” he admitted quietly. “But… your touch—it calmed the beast. Somehow.”

Her brow furrowed, confusion mixing with disbelief. “My touch?” she echoed. She had feared him, feared the raw, feral strength he had displayed, and yet her touch… it had restrained him? That was impossible. That shouldn’t have happened.

Damian’s jaw tightened, eyes darkening with a complicated swirl of emotions—anger, frustration, awe. “It shouldn’t have,” he said, almost to himself. “No one… nothing should have the ability to do that.”

Selena shook her head, fatigue and disbelief tugging at her limbs. “Then what am I to you, Damian? A shield? A weapon? Or just… collateral?” Her voice cracked, raw with emotion. “Because it feels like you’ve been using me. All this time.”

He flinched as if struck, and for a moment, silence filled the room. Then his hands tightened gently around hers, a grounding touch that sent a shiver through her spine. “Using you?” he echoed, voice tight. “No. I’ve been protecting you, yes—but protecting doesn’t mean using. Don’t you see? I… I can’t let what’s inside you break free. Not to anyone. Not even to me.”

Her chest heaved, the argument rising between them despite the exhaustion, because neither could deny the truth burning in their veins. “Protecting me… or controlling me?” she challenged, the words harsh yet trembling. “I can’t… I can’t keep living in someone else’s cage!”

Damian’s gaze dropped for a fraction of a heartbeat before returning with unflinching intensity. “And I can’t keep you from discovering the fire inside you,” he said, voice dropping to a growl. “You think I don’t feel it too? Every pulse, every flare of your power… it’s not just your blood. It’s us. Together, it’s—dangerous.”

Selena blinked at him, the tension crackling between them in a way that had nothing to do with anger alone. Her body still buzzed from the outburst of the night before, from the moonlight and pendant energy that had ripped through the study, and now, up close, she could feel it again. The uncontainable pull, the spark of heat that danced along her skin when he leaned in, even slightly.

“Damian…” she began softly, her voice almost pleading. “Then what are we supposed to do? Sit in this… this limbo of fear and power?”

He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, his eyes darkened further, and a flicker of that predatory, cursed side surfaced in the intensity of his stare. He was trembling slightly, not from exhaustion, but from the magnetic pull between them, the dangerous closeness, the raw acknowledgment of what could happen if he let go.

And then it happened—the line between argument and attraction blurred, imperceptibly at first, then undeniably. Damian leaned closer to her, an almost involuntary movement, his lips brushing against hers in a kiss that carried both fury and need. It was sharp, demanding, a clash of fire and tension neither could or wanted to restrain.

Selena’s heart skipped a beat, body started responding before her mind could protest. Anger, fear, and desire collided, and she found herself kissing him back, caught in the chaotic pull of the moment. Every sense screamed, every nerve ignited, every instinct told her to fight—and yet, she didn’t. She couldn’t.

But the kiss was more than a kiss. It was a declaration and a warning, a breaking of barriers they hadn’t realized it existed before. Damian’s hands were very firm against her waist, holding her close, grounding her even as the storm of their emotions threatened to tear them apart. And through it all, the memory of the beast, of the raw, violent power he could unleash, persisted like a shadow over them all, reminding her just how dangerous this connection was.

Finally, breathless and overwhelmed, Selena pulled back slightly, her forehead resting against his chest, trying to catch her scattered thoughts. “Damian… we can’t…” she whispered, voice trembling. “This… us… it’s not fated. It’s forbidden.”

He pressed a hand to her cheek, brushing away the sweat, the stray hair, the tension that clung to her. His own breath was heavy, uneven, caught between desire and control. “I know,” he admitted, voice low, husky. “I know. And that’s what terrifies me the most.”

Selena’s pulse raced. The weight of his confession pressed on her, a dangerous, exciting truth. He was human again, yes, but that beast, that curse, that volatile power—he could never truly suppress it entirely. And yet, here he was, holding her, confessing that she had calmed the part of him no one else could.

Anger flared within her again, mingling with the residual heat of their kiss. “You can’t play with me like this,” she said, voice strong despite her exhaustion. “You can’t act like we’re… we’re equals in this when one slip—one moment—and we could both lose control.”

Damian shook his head, pressing his forehead to hers, lips hovering near her ear. “Selena, if I fall for you…” His words were a growl, a whisper, a warning all at once. “…the beast wins.”

A chill ran down her spine, and yet a thrill followed it. He meant it—not a threat, not idle words. A truth as dangerous as the beast within him, as potent as the power he so carefully restrained. And she understood, finally, that they were tethered in a way that went beyond logic, beyond caution, beyond the rules that governed their lives.

Selena’s hands moved of their own accord, resting against his chest, feeling the steady rhythm of his heart beneath the taut muscles, the steady force that had held her through the chaos. “Then we fight it,” she whispered. “Together. But carefully. Every step. Every choice. Otherwise…” Her voice trailed off, the implication clear, the danger undeniable.

Damian’s hands tightened slightly on her arms, grounding her, holding her in place. “Together,” he echoed, eyes locking on hers with intensity and vulnerability, a rare combination that made her chest ache with both longing and fear. “But you have to understand… it won’t be easy. And it won’t be safe. The bond we’re forming… it’s already too strong to ignore".

Selena had a deep breath, letting his words sink in. The storm between them had not passed; it had only shifted, transformed into something equally potent emotional, dangerous, and utterly undeniable. And as she rested against him, feeling the beat of his heart, the faint brush of warmth, the simmering tension beneath it all, she realized they had crossed a threshold.

There was no turning back. The kiss had opened a door. And beyond that door lay a path neither of them could walk alone.

The room seemed to shrink around them, shadows lengthening, the night pressing in, the memory of the unleashed moonlight still fresh in every corner. And though she was exhausted and it weighed her down, though uncertainty gnawed at the edges of her thoughts, one truth was undeniable: Damian was no longer just the cursed master of the house, the beast she feared. He was someone who had just revealed the rawest part of himself to her, and that revelation was both terrifying and irresistible.

The air was heavy, thick with tension and promise. The pendant at her throat pulsed faintly, as if acknowledging the shift, acknowledging the bond they had ignited. And Damian, still pressed close, whispered against her ear, low and dangerous:

“If I fall for you, the beast wins.”

Selena’s breath caught. Her heart hammered. And somewhere deep within, she knew that nothing—no power, no fear, no curse—would ever let them f

orget the night the Moonlit Velvet had burned between them.