Alaric

Nico didn’t flinch. He just gave me a slow, questioning look, his hazel eyes completely calm.

The smile didn’t even leave his face. If anything, it widened slightly, as if he found the sight of my dripping, furious frame thoroughly entertaining. He looked down at my white-knuckled grip on his chest, then back up, his eyes bright with that same mocking light that always made me want to tear him apart.

’’What is the problem, princess? Do you want more?’’ he asked, his voice carrying that low, teasing chuckle he used whenever he wanted to turn a real argument into a joke.

He was trying so hard to make it look like banter, but I wasn’t letting him play the charming rogue tonight. I was exhausted from the invisible weight he kept over my head, tired of the way he looked down on my reactions, and sick to death of how he pretended everything was perfectly normal the second he decided the encounter was over.

I bunched the fabric tighter in my hands, pulling his face down until his breath hitched against my mouth, and screamed right at him.

’’It’s fun to you, right? You enjoy watching me crumble under you like this. You enjoy watching me succumb to these feelings and seeing how fucking stupid I am, because every single time you want me, I just let you take me without a fight!’’

’’What is the problem, Alaric?’’ he retorted. The lazy, teasing lift in his voice vanished in an instant, replaced by a cold, flat seriousness that cut through the room like a blade. His eyes went dark, the humor completely wiping out as his jaw hardened against my grip. ’’This arrangement wasn’t supposed to be anything serious. Don’t tell me that you have gone and fallen in love with me.’’

The word hadn’t even fully left his mouth before my right fist connected with the side of his jaw.

The sound of the impact was loud and sharp in the quiet suite. I didn’t regret it for a single fraction of a second.

My knuckles stung from the force of the blow, but the raw satisfaction of breaking through his untouched composure was worth every bit of the pain.

Before tonight, Nico would have laughed a punch like that off. He would have wiped his lip, smirked, and used it as an excuse to tackle me back into the water, turning the violence into another round of our typical, rough competition. But he didn’t move.

His brown eyes were opened wide, staring at me with a rare, heavy look of genuine surprise. He stayed pinned against the door frame, his hand slowly coming up to touch the reddening skin of his jaw, as if he couldn’t quite process that I had actually struck him.

But a bruised jaw was the least of his problems. It was the absolute least of what I had planned for him tonight.

’’Love? Someone as fundamentally shitty as you are does not deserve love. Want to know what I actually think?’’ I asked him, leaning in so close my forehead almost touched his, my voice dropping into a venomous hiss. ’’I hate that I am doing this with you. I hate every single second of it. But the sex? Of course I enjoyed the sex. Why wouldn’t I? After all, it’s just sex, Nicholas. It’s nothing more than a physical release to get rid of an itch. What I am absolutely sick and tired of is you walking out on me the second you get yours, acting like you are completely repulsed by the very sight of me the moment we finish, or how you always find a way to push me into corners so I can’t touch you back. So all I have to say to you now is fuck you, Nico park! I hate the day I agreed to any of this, because if I hadn’t, then you wouldn’t have the power to treat me like this, no matter what our history is!’’

I forcefully let go of his collar, shoving him away one last time as I tore myself out of his space.

The room felt entirely too small, too hot, suffocating with the smell of cedar wood and his skin. I turned my back on him, intending to grab my bags and find any other corner of this cabin to sleep in, but I didn’t even make it two steps across the tatami mat.

Suddenly, his shadow fell over my back. Before I could react, two heavy arms came around my chest from behind, locking securely around my ribs and hauling my wet body tightly back against his robe. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

’’What the hell are you doing?’’ I ground out through gritted teeth, my elbows instantly driving backward to hit his ribs, trying as hard as I could to break his hold.

But he didn’t budge. He only squeezed tighter, his long fingers anchoring into my wet shirt, his head dropping down until his forehead pressed firmly into the crook of my neck.

’’I am sorry, Alaric. I am truly sorry,’’ he whispered, his voice muffled against my wet skin.

There was a heavy, quiet sadness in his tone that I hadn’t heard from him before. He sounded genuinely broken, completely stripped of that armor he wore like a second skin, but I was too tired of being handled like an embarrassing secret to care.

The sudden warmth of his body enveloping me didn’t feel like a comfort; it felt like another trap.

’’Let go of me, Nicholas!’’ I shouted, twisting my hips to break his center of gravity. ’’I am not going to let you gaslight me anymore. I know exactly why you’re doing this now. You’re only apologizing because your favorite little sex toy won’t open his legs for you anymore the next time you get bored.’’

’’Sex toy?’’ he asked, his voice suddenly rising, the sadness instantly sharpening into a hard, defensive anger.

Before I could reply, he grabbed me by the shoulders and forcefully turned me around to face him, his grip bruising through the damp fabric.

His face was pale, his eyes flashing with a dangerous, volatile light as he stared down into my eyes.

’’I have never thought of you as my sex toy. Ever,’’ he barked out, his chest heaving against mine. ’’I see you as much more than that, Alaric. You know damn well I do.’’

’’Really?’’ I scoffed, letting out a harsh, dry laugh that sounded hollow even to my own ears. ’’Then explain it to me, Nico. Explain why you always walk away the second you’re done. Explain why you won’t let me lay a single hand on you during sex, and why you always act like an indifferent stranger the moment we put our clothes back on.’’

The question hung heavily in the narrow space between us, stripping away the last of the shouting.

Nico’s jaw tightened, his fingers trembling slightly where they held my shoulders. He heaved a deep, ragged sigh, his gaze searching my face for a few long, agonizing seconds. His lips parted, and for a moment, I actually thought he was going to say it. I thought he was finally going to break the silence and tell me what kind of misery he was running from.

But the seconds ticked by, and the walls went right back up. The vulnerability vanished from his eyes, replaced by that familiar, closed-off distance. He slowly lowered his head, his hands losing their grip and sliding off my shoulders completely until they fell dead to his sides.

’’I can’t,’’ he whispered to the floorboards. ’’I am... sorry, Alaric.’’

I let out another short, bitter scoff, stepping backward until the space between us felt wide enough to freeze over. ’’Just as I had thought. You’re a coward, Nicholas. This will be the absolute last time. I don’t care if you cut yourself in front of me again, because I am completely done. Once this Japan trip and the race are over, don’t ever talk to me again. And this time, I truly mean it.’’

I turned on my heel and headed straight toward the bathroom, my wet clothes squelching against the floor. I kept my eyes locked on the sliding wooden door ahead, but a pathetic, weak part of my chest was still waiting for him to do something.

I expected him to call my name, to chase after me, to grab my wrist and tell me whatever secret he was trying so hard to protect.

But the room behind me stayed dead silent. There was no sound but the distant, rhythmic bubbling of the hot spring outside.

I slid the bathroom door open and stepped inside, shutting it behind me with a firm, definitive click.

As I stood in the small space, looking at my dripping, ruined reflection in the mirror, a cold, heavy realization settled deep into my chest.

After everything that had just happened out there in the steam, I realized that I might, in fact, be falling completely in love with my rival.

And the bastard was going to let us burn before he told me why.