The drive back to the penthouse felt longer and infinitely more agonizing than usual, the city lights blurring outside the window as Nyra purposefully kept her eyes locked straight ahead.
She refused to glance at the passing streets, refused to scroll through her phone for a cheap distraction, and absolutely refused to acknowledge the storm brewing in her chest because her mind was utterly, hopelessly stuck on the memory of Sera.
She couldn’t shake the image of how comfortably Sera had leaned into Adrian's space, how effortlessly she spoke to him, and how she looked at him with an infuriatingly familiar expression that practically screamed she already knew every single one of his secrets.
Nyra scoffed under her breath, a bitter and disbelieving sound that cut through the quiet interior of the car as she muttered,
“Unbelievable.”
The exact moment she stepped inside the penthouse, she dropped her heavy designer bag onto the couch with a dull, aggressive thud that echoed off the high ceilings.
“People like me,” she muttered mockingly, pacing the length of the polished floorboards while crossing her arms tightly against her chest,
“go back to what they know… well, I’d absolutely love to see that happen.”
She paused in her tracks, the heavy silence of the room pressing in on her until she finally snapped at her own reflection in the panoramic glass,
“Why do I even care?” The quiet space offered no reply, but the truth was already humming uncomfortably beneath her skin;
she cared deeply, and that realization annoyed her far more than the initial provocation.
“Ugh… Adrian—” she groaned aloud, his name tearing from her throat with a sharp, resentful edge that sounded less like a statement and more like a formal grievance.
Right on cue, the heavy front door clicked open and swung inward, causing Nyra to freeze instantly mid-stride before slowly turning on her heel to face the entrance.
Adrian walked into the room with his signature calm, entirely unbothered by the gravity of the world, moving as though the emotional axis of the entire afternoon hadn't shifted at all.
Nyra narrowed her eyes, locking her gaze onto him as she thought, Perfect, just the man I wanted to tear apart.
“You’re back,” he noted simply, loosening his tie with a casual indifference that only stoked the fire burning in her chest.
“Oh, I am,” she replied instantly, her voice practically dripping with a biting sarcasm that he picked up on without a single moment of hesitation.
Adrian paused, his hand dropping from his collar just for a fraction of a second as he read the room.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his tone perfectly even.Nyra let out a short, hollow laugh that lacked any real warmth.
“Nothing at all,” she said, tilting her head with an engineered innocence,
“Why on earth would anything be wrong? Except, of course, for the minor detail that your very close friend decided to sashay into your private office today like she holds the damn deed to the entire building.”
Adrian’s sharp gaze instantly locked onto hers, his expression hardening. “Sera,” he said flatly, stating it as a fact rather than a question.
“Oh, so you do recognize the name, you asshole,” Nyra shot back instantly, her words cutting through the air like a whip as she took a deliberate step forward.
Adrian watched her now with absolute focus, studying the rigid line of her shoulders and the flush creeping up her neck.
“And what the hell is she to you?”
Nyra continued, stepping even closer as her voice rose in spite of her best efforts to remain detached.
“Because from where I was standing, she seemed remarkably comfortable invading your personal bubble.”
A heavy, deliberate silence stretched between them as Adrian deliberately withheld his response, knowing full well that his quiet indifference was driving her up the wall.
“Answer me,” she snapped, her patience entirely evaporated.Adrian waited a beat, holding her fiery gaze before he finally asked,
“And why does it matter so much to you, my little flame?”
Nyra opened her mouth to fire off a scathing retort, but the words died in her throat as she suddenly realized she didn’t have a single safe answer—at least,
not one she was willing to say out loud to his face.
“Exactly,” Adrian added smoothly, a quiet victory ringing in his tone that hit her like a physical blow.Nyra scoffed loudly, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
“Of course, why would it matter to me? It’s not like she was practically draping her entire body all over your desk and leaning into you right in front of a whole room full of people. It’s total bullshit, Adrian.”
Adrian’s lips twitched slightly, a dangerous, knowing amusement dancing at the corners of his mouth.
“And you stayed around long enough to notice all of that?”
he asked softly.
Nyra froze, her posture stiffening as she realized her mistake.
“…I didn’t say I watched her.”
“You didn’t have to say a word,”
Adrian countered, stepping deeper into her space until a faint, infuriating smirk fully bloomed across his face.
“You’re jealous, my little flame. Infuriatingly, beautifully jealous.”
Nyra’s eyes widened in sheer outrage. “What?! No—absolute bullshit—”
“Very jealous,” he insisted, his voice dropping an octave as he taunted her.
“I am not, you arrogant prick!” she practically yelled, taking a definitive step forward until she was standing right in his personal space, her chest rising and falling with her heavy breaths.
“I’m arguing because she was aggressively crossing professional boundaries, Adrian.”
“And since when do my professional boundaries matter this much to you?”
Adrian asked, leaning down slightly so his face was mere inches from hers, his dark eyes daring her to speak the truth.
Nyra remained stubbornly silent, but her frantic breathing and the fierce glare in her eyes gave him every single answer he actually needed.Adrian’s smirk deepened into something wicked and entirely self-satisfied.
“You care. Admission by silence.”
“I don’t care! Shut the hell up!” she hissed, her hands clenching into fists at her sides.
“Then prove it to me right now,” Adrian challenged softly.
Nyra frowned, completely thrown off balance by his shift in tone. “How?”
Adrian leaned even closer, his warmth radiating against her skin and effectively shattering whatever lingering focus she had left.
“Ignore it. Walk away from me right now and prove you don't give a shit.”
Nyra glared up at him, her heart hammering against her ribs. “You are absolutely impossible.”
“And you, my dear, are delightfully predictable,” he murmured back.
That final comment did it.
Driven by a sudden surge of playful fury, Nyra snatched the nearest velvet cushion from the edge of the couch and hurled it directly at his chest with everything she had.
Adrian caught it effortlessly with one hand, a slow, amused chuckle vibrating in his chest as he looked from the pillow back to her flushed face.
“…Are you seriously throwing things at me now?” he asked, his eyebrows arching in amusement.
Nyra didn't hesitate for a second, immediately lunging to grab a second cushion.
“Oh, you think that was something? I’m just getting started, you dick.”
She threw the second one, putting much more force and speed behind it this time.
Adrian dodged the missile with an athletic twist of his torso, his laughter ringing out clear and bright through the penthouse.
“Careful now,” he warned, his eyes flashing with a sudden, competitive spark as he began to close the distance between them,
“You’re playing a game you might deeply regret losing.”
Nyra scoffed, her competitive spirit fully ignited as she grabbed a third cushion.
“Try me, you bastard.”Another cushion flew through the air, followed by another slick dodge, and suddenly the tense argument completely dissolved into a blur of rapid motion.
They were circling each other around the expansive living room, trading sharp-witted insults, breathless laughter, and playful threats as the heavy, suffocating tension from earlier shifted into a high-octane, electrifying current that filled the entire space.
Adrian made a sudden, lightning-fast move forward to disarm her, entirely cutting off her escape route and forcing Nyra to take a frantic step backward.
Her heel caught the plush edge of the sofa, losing her footing entirely as she tumbled backward onto the soft cushions with a breathless, startled gasp escaping her lips.
Before she could even attempt to scramble back up to her feet, Adrian lunged forward and hovered directly over her, planting one dominant hand firmly on the back of the couch right beside her head while his other arm braced against the seat near her shoulder. He trapped her completely within the warm sanctuary of his body, their faces so incredibly close that she could feel the rapid, synchronized rhythm of his breath against her lips.
They both froze instantly, the playful chaos evaporating in a single heartbeat as their eyes locked in a searing, unbroken gaze.
The lighthearted energy transformed into something infinitely heavier, a suffocatingly familiar hunger that made the air in the penthouse feel thick and electric.
Nyra’s shallow breathing slowed down to a ragged crawl, her eyes tracking the dangerous darkening of Adrian’s gaze as his eyes dropped to her lips before snapping back up to meet hers.
“Still want to claim you’re not even a little bit jealous?”
he murmured, his voice a low, gravelly friction that sent a violent shiver straight down her spine.
Nyra swallowed hard, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs as she forced her trembling lips to utter a blatant, desperate lie.
“…Not even a little bit.”It was a beautiful, transparent falsehood, and the knowing glint in Adrian’s eyes proved they both knew it.
For a fraction of a second, his lips curved as if he was finally going to close those remaining inches and erase the boundary between them once and for all.
But then, deliberately testing her boundaries, he didn't cross that final, invisible line; instead, he gave her one last lingering, heavy look that promised everything, before slowly straightening his spine and stepping back out of her personal space.
He turned on his heel and casually walked away toward his study as if the laws of gravity hadn't just rewritten themselves in the middle of the room.
Nyra sat frozen on the couch, her chest heaving as she tried to stabilize her uneven breathing, feeling utterly frustrated, completely confused, and far more deeply affected than she would ever dare admit out loud—because now, she realized with terrifying clarity,
it wasn’t about Sera at all anymore.
It was entirely about him, and the intoxicating, dangerous way he made her feel.
" TO BE CONTINUED "
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Author's note....
Hey everyone 🖤
I hope you enjoyed this chapter… looks like Nyra is finally feeling something she doesn’t want to admit 👀🔥
And that little fight… was it fun to read? 😏
Tell me honestly—did you like this jealous Nyra? 💌
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments 🖤
Bye bye dear readers 👋 👋
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