Bound by the Past, Locked by the Heart novel Chapter 280

The suffocating darkness of the night utterly devoured the final flicker of reason in the room, leaving behind nothing but harsh, ragged breaths, broken moans, and an endless, tangled collision of bodies.

As consciousness slowly bled back into her mind, the first thing Willa registered was the intense, aching soreness pulsing through her limbs.

It had been far too long since she last experienced this level of intimacy, and her body was brutally unprepared for it.

She slowly opened her eyes. Clothes were scattered chaotically across the rug beside the bed, hopelessly twisted together.

A few discarded foil wrappers tossed carelessly into the wastebasket stood as glaring evidence of their frantic, unbridled madness the night before.

She lay completely still.

Something like this naturally required a moment to process.

Suddenly, a warm arm slid across the mattress, casually draping itself over her waist.

Willa's breath hitched for a split second. Instantly, a toxic cocktail of nausea and deep-seated repulsion seized her chest.

Her voice was dead calm when she spoke. "Take your hand off me."

Those six words mercilessly severed the last thread of pathetic hope lingering in the man beside her.

The arm wrapped around her waist recoiled as if burned.

Randal shot up in bed, frantically scrambling to explain, his voice trembling and entirely incoherent.

"Willa, last night... you were drugged, I... I didn't mean to... I know I shouldn't have, but I..."

"I know," Willa cut him off, her tone so flat it was devoid of a single ripple of emotion.

She slowly pushed herself up to a sitting position. As she moved, the sheets slipped away, revealing the undeniable, bruised marks painting her collarbone and shoulders.

Willa scoffed. "You really haven't changed at all, Randal. What, did you genuinely believe that sleeping with me makes you somehow special now?"

She slid off the bed, turning her back to him as she gathered her scattered clothes from the floor. "I'll say this one last time. Treat last night as if it never happened. As for whether you tell Corbin or not, do whatever the hell you want."

Randal collapsed back onto the edge of the bed. He opened his mouth, desperate to say something, but under the freezing, dead stare of her eyes, any words would only be a humiliating degradation.

Willa dressed herself with an utterly blank expression. The glaring marks of their intimacy were briefly exposed before being swiftly buried beneath fabric, erasing every trace of what had occurred.

Fully dressed, she marched straight to the door and pulled it open.

"Willa!"

An agonized, frantic scream tore from behind her, followed by the heavy thud of rapid footsteps.

Randal practically threw himself off the bed. Not even bothering to grab a single piece of clothing, he charged toward the doorway entirely naked. Just as she was about to cross the threshold, he lunged forward, clamping a vice-like grip around her wrist.