ONE NIGHT STAND WITH HOT DUKE-Chapter 107: Honesty is the best

"Then what is it about?" Valerie asked. "Responsibility? Habit? Or fear fear of losing something you’ve held onto since childhood?"

Demian said nothing. The question had struck far too close to the truth. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Valerie took a long breath. "I’m not asking you to choose tonight," she said more gently. "I just need to know... whether I’m placing my hopes in someone whose heart was never truly empty."

Demian looked back at her. Their eyes met. For the first time, there was no anger in his only confusion and exhaustion.

"I don’t know how to let go of the past," he admitted quietly. "I was never taught how."

Valerie lowered her gaze. Her hand moved slowly to her stomach, a reflexive, protective gesture.

"I can’t live inside that uncertainty," she said softly. "Not just for me... but for this child."

Demian followed her gaze. His chest tightened.

"What do you want from me?" he asked in a low voice.

Valerie lifted her face again. Her eyes were calm, yet the unhealed wounds were plainly visible.

"Honesty," she replied. "Even if it hurts. Even if it means I have to prepare myself to leave."

The word leave hung in the air, making Demian tense.

He did not answer right away. But this time, he did not deny it either. And for Valerie, that silence was already an answer proof that whatever Demian felt, he was still trapped between desire and fear.

That night, there was no touch. No embrace. Only two people sitting close together, bound by something fragile an honesty that had finally begun to surface, though it was still not enough to save anyone.

Valerie held Demian’s gaze longer than before, as if searching his face for something some narrow crack through which honesty might slip through, unguarded by pride or fear.

"Can’t you be honest with me?" she finally asked. Her voice was not raised, not demanding if anything, it was too calm. The kind of calm born of exhaustion.

Demian fell silent. He lowered his eyes for a moment, then looked back at Valerie, his gaze darker now, deeper.

"Valerie," he said quietly, "there are those who say that the bond between a Morvex and their mate is a curse." He paused, as though weighing his own words. "A curse that cannot be broken. Once bound, they are destined to pull at one another for a lifetime to hurt one another, to destroy one another... if either tries to leave."

Valerie froze. She stared at him without blinking.

There were so many things she wanted to say. About the suffocating weight she felt every day. About her fear of becoming nothing more than a piece of a fate she had never chosen. About the child growing inside her born of a bond she herself did not fully understand.

But saying any of it would only make everything more complicated.

So Valerie chose silence for a moment, then asked a question simpler and far more dangerous.

"Do you regret meeting me?"

The question struck Demian harder than any accusation. He straightened, meeting her gaze head-on, without the slightest hesitation.

"No," he answered firmly. "Never not for a single moment have I regretted knowing you."

He stepped half a pace closer, his voice lowering, steady with conviction.

"Even after everything that’s happened. Even after how far we’ve come. I have never regretted it."

Valerie swallowed. Her gaze wavered not because she didn’t want to believe him, but because she wanted to far too much.

"I don’t know," she said honestly. "I don’t know whether I should believe you or not."

Demian let out a long breath. This time there was no anger, no dominance only the weariness of a man who knew how deeply he had hurt someone.

"I know I’ve been wrong in many ways," he said. "And I know that earning your trust... may be the hardest thing I will ever have to do."

He stopped in front of her, close enough that Valerie could feel the warmth of his body, yet still keeping his distance a restraint he rarely exercised.

"But listen to me," Demian continued, his voice low and earnest. "I don’t want to lose you. Now... I cannot afford to lose you."

Valerie looked at him. For the first time, she did not see the Duke of Morvex, nor the man bound by fate and curses. She saw someone afraid not of losing power, but of losing the one thing he could not control.

Silence settled between them once more.

Valerie did not answer right away. Her hand moved slowly to her stomach, a reflex that had become second nature.

"Trust is not born from promises," she said softly. "It’s born from the choices you make after this."

Demian nodded faintly.

And for the first time, he understood that the greatest threat in his life was not Ivanka, nor the Morvex curse but the possibility that he was learning how to choose too late.

Demian fell silent for a moment after his own words. His hand still rested at the side of the bed, his body half-turned as if preparing to step away a familiar habit, retreating whenever emotions ran too deep.

"Go to sleep," he said quietly but firmly. "It’s late enough."

Valerie did not obey right away. She slowly lifted her face, her gray eyes meeting Demian’s without defensiveness, without anger. There was only fragile honesty there.

"I want you," she said softly.

The words were not spoken seductively. There was no playfulness in them. On the contrary they sounded like a confession too sincere to hide.

Demian froze.

He stared at Valerie for a long moment, as if making sure he hadn’t misheard. His fingers curled slowly into his palm not in anger, but in restraint, holding back something far more dangerous: desire tangled with guilt.

"Valerie..." His voice was lower now. "You’re tired. Your emotions—"

"I know what I’m feeling," Valerie interrupted gently but firmly. "And for the first time, I don’t want to run from it."

She shifted slightly on the bed, making space not a vulgar invitation, but an act of trust.

"Every day feels like I’m living in the middle of a storm," she continued. "Everyone pulls me in different directions. But when you’re here... when you sit quietly with me like this... I feel real."

Demian closed his eyes briefly. His breath caught.

He had faced war, intrigue, and the blood-bound curse of Morvex but nothing had prepared him for a woman looking at him with such profoundly human need.

"You know," he said at last, opening his eyes and meeting her gaze again, "if I come closer now, I don’t want to hurt you again."

Valerie nodded. "I don’t want to be hurt either."

She swallowed. "But I don’t want to be alone tonight."