Sweet Hatred-Chapter 244: Back home

ARIA

I didn’t remember falling asleep.

But I remembered him.

The way he moved inside me.

The weight of his body.

The way he whispered my name like a secret no one else deserved.

I turned slowly, the ache between my thighs a dull, constant reminder of every way he touched me last night. My legs were still trembling faintly under the sheets. My hips ached. My throat felt dry.

And Kael was gone.

The space next to me was cold.

I sat up slowly, squinting against the morning light bleeding through the curtains. The sun was up—fully up. My skin felt sticky. My muscles sluggish. I had no idea what time it was. Could’ve been noon. Could’ve been ten minutes past dawn.

I reached for my phone on the nightstand.

One new message.

Unknown number.

Hey sad girl, you still alive?

I blinked.

Then rolled my eyes with a sigh.

"Of course it’s him," I muttered.

I typed back quickly.

_Let me guess. Ash gave you my number?_

A second later, the reply came in.

_Technically I stole it off her phone but she’ll survive. Might hit me though._

I snorted under my breath. That was... not even surprising.

Sylas was like if a beige flag came to life, wore designer suits, and smirked like he invented flirting. I saved his number.

Another ping.

_Are you with Kael?_

I hesitated before typing back.

_Something like that. Practically on lockdown in his suite._

_Should I come rescue you?_

I stared at the message, thumb hovering over the keyboard. The audacity wasn’t even shocking. It was textbook Sylas, playful, taunting, probably too aware of how complicated this all was.

But I didn’t have to answer.

Because the bedroom door clicked open.

I jerked my head up.

Kael walked in.

Towel sat low around his hips. Hair damp. Chest still wet from the shower, drops of water gliding over hard, defined muscle like sin on marble. He looked like he hadn’t slept. Like he didn’t need to.

He was carrying a tray.

I blinked. "I thought you weren’t back."

"I’ve been back for a while," he said calmly, setting the tray down on a nearby table. "Went to get something for you to eat. Thought you’d wake up hungry."

He picked up a slice of mango, golden, ripe, glistening and walked to me, every step deliberate.

My mouth went dry. Not from hunger.

He sat on the edge of the bed, held my chin gently between his fingers, and brought the fruit to my lips.

"How’re you feeling?" he asked, voice low and soft, like he wasn’t the same man who split me in half last night and executed someone hours ago.

I parted my lips.

He fed me.

The juice spilled slightly down my chin, and before I could reach up to wipe it, Kael leaned in.

His tongue followed the drop down my skin, slow, warm, intentional.

And my whole body remembered everything he did to me.

The mango was sweet, but his tongue chasing the juice down my chin tasted better.

I smacked his chest lightly, grumbling through a mouthful. "You treat my hoo-ha like a war zone."

Kael arched one dark brow, utterly unfazed. "That’s funny."

"It’s true," I muttered, licking the corner of my lip. "You storm in like you’re conducting a siege." freēnovelkiss.com

His voice dipped, soft and thick. "You mean like how I made you squirt so hard the sheets are still wet?"

I choked. "That’s not what I—"

"You’re pretending like you didn’t beg for it," he murmured, thumb tracing the edge of my jaw. "Like you didn’t moan my name so many times it stopped sounding real."

My thighs pressed together instinctively. Stupid traitors.

"You disappeared like a ghost," I huffed, trying to shift the subject. "Could’ve at least left a note."

He leaned in, lips brushing mine. "Missed me?"

"Never." My voice caught.

He smirked, and nipped my bottom lip. Just hard enough to make me gasp.

But before I could retaliate with something sassy, my phone pinged from the nightstand.

Kael’s head turned. His entire body stilled.

He reached out without asking and picked it up.

The screen lit up.

Sylas: Still waiting for your rescue call, sad girl.

His jaw clenched.

"Why is he texting you?"

I sat up straighter, suddenly feeling the air shift. "I didn’t give him my number."

He didn’t say anything. Just stared at the screen like he could melt it.

I sighed. "Look, he probably swiped it from Ash’s phone or something, he said as much. Besides, we’re just friends."

Kael’s frown deepened.

Here we go.

"You can’t keep doing this," I said sharply. "You act like any man who breathes near me is planning to steal me away."

"I don’t."

"You do," I shot back. "You give them all that death glare. You’re doing it right now just at the mention of Sylas."

"That’s how I look at people normally," he said dryly.

I rolled my eyes. "You’re impossible."

I tossed the sheet off me and tried to slide out of bed, muttering, "I’m not doing this before breakfast—"

But before I made it halfway, he grabbed the end of the sheet and yanked.

I yelped, flailing as I was dragged right back into his lap like a poorly wrapped burrito.

"Kael—!"

He said nothing. Just sat there like gravity incarnate while I glared at him, half tangled in cotton and male ego.

"Let me go," I snapped, wriggling against his arms. "You’re suffocating."

"Stop moving," he murmured into my ear, voice low enough to shake something loose inside me. "Unless you want me to pin you face-down and teach you how to behave."

I stilled.

He nuzzled behind my ear. "If you keep misbehaving, Aria..."

His hand dragged down my back, firm and unyielding.

"I’ll be forced to punish you. Again. And again. Until you learn."

My whole body flushed.

My mouth opened.

Then closed.

He was smug. I could feel it in the way his breath hit my neck.

And God help me...

I was already wet again.

"You’re threatening me with another round?" I scoffed, still squirming in his lap like I had a choice. "Wow. So original."

Kael didn’t answer.

He just held me there, gaze cool and unreadable, towel still clinging low around his hips, muscles shifting beneath me like coiled steel.

"You really think I’m scared of you?" I taunted.

"Mm." His lips brushed my jaw. "Not yet."

"I’m not one of your men, Kael," I said, lifting my chin. "You can’t just bark and expect me to bend."

He hummed again, so soft it made me shiver.

"I mean it," I added, voice sharper. "You don’t get to control who texts me. Or who looks at me. Or—"

His fingers slipped between my thighs.

I froze.

Just like that, I forgot what I was saying.

He found me already wet. Soaked.

I felt the smirk on his lips before he even spoke. "You were saying something about control?"

I narrowed my eyes, desperate to sound unaffected. "That’s just biology. Has nothing to do with you."

Kael chuckled darkly. "Liar."

Before I could snap back, he moved.

Fast.

I was flipped onto my stomach, the sheet dragged off, my hips yanked up until I was arched for him, face pressed into the mattress.

I gasped. "Kael—!"

"Be still," he said, voice low, firm, so calm it made my stomach twist.

His hand came down on my ass. Once. Twice. Just enough to sting. Just enough to warn.

"You want to test how long you can last with that mouth?" he murmured behind me, his fingers slipping between my folds again. "You want to see how long you can hold out before you’re sobbing into these sheets?"

My breath hitched.

"You wanna be brave, Aria? Go ahead. Be brave."

I bit my lip, refusing to give him the satisfaction of a sound.

He pushed in.

All of him.

No pause.

I screamed into the mattress, hands clawing at the bed as he filled me in one brutal thrust.

He didn’t wait.

He started moving.

Ruthless.

Deep.

Steady.

The way only he knew how. The way that shattered me every time.

"Still got something to say?" he whispered against my spine.

I whimpered. My throat burned. My hands fisted the sheets.

"Didn’t think so."

He fucked me hard enough to drown every thought. My sass, my anger, my pride, gone. Torn apart by every merciless thrust as he pounded me deeper into the mattress.

And when I started sobbing, not from pain, but from the unbearable pleasure he forced into every inch of me, he didn’t stop.

He just kissed the tears from my cheek.

And kept going.

The private jet touched down with barely a bump.

Smooth. Precise. Like everything Kael Roman touched.

But my stomach still twisted.

Home.

The word felt heavy.

Even as the island disappeared behind us and the chaos of the past day faded into memory, I couldn’t relax.

Not with Olivia on my mind.

Not when the moment the wheels hit the runway, my phone started buzzing again, texts, missed calls, work updates. And not just me.

Kael was already on his third call before we even stepped out of the aircraft. His voice sharp, low, slicing through international time zones like butter.

My chest felt tight the second I saw my apartment building come into view.

This was it.

My world.

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