I was restless for the entire day, unable to settle into anything long enough for it to distract me from the one thing that refused to leave my mind.
Victor.
It wasn't supposed to matter.
That was the part that unsettled me the most was the quiet, persistent awareness that this had never been part of the plan, that whatever game I had been playing should have left no room for something as inconvenient as this.
And yet, no matter how many times I replayed it in my head, the outcome remained the same.
He had pulled away.
Not hesitated.
Not struggled long enough to make it satisfying.
He had stopped, chosen to stop.
My fingers tightened slowly against the sheets as I sat on the edge of my bed, the fabric bunching beneath my grip as though I could press the feeling out of myself if I held on tightly enough, my jaw setting as the memory replayed again.
His voice was low but certain, the way he had stepped back as though I had been something he needed distance from.
