Bound to You

Bound to You Part 9

Six weeks before the Gala

It was too late for the office to pretend it wasn't tired. The embedded ceiling lights dimmed automatically after nine p.m., leaving just enough glow for ambition to see by. Enjoy sat cross-legged in her chair, stylus tucked behind her ear as she pinned new motion studies to the corkboard.

June arrived without announcement.

Her footsteps were soft, but her presence was not. She stopped behind Enjoy, close enough that the new shampoo Enjoy had bought at 7-Eleven suddenly became the most consequential decision of the week.

"What changed from earlier?" June asked, staring at the newly pinned frames.

Enjoy turned, unaware of the proximity she was turning into. Her shoulder brushed June's sternum, just the faintest contact and June's breath hitched so quietly only her pulse heard it.

"It felt like the shapes were controlling the city, not the other way around," Enjoy explained. "It should look like the train is learning the streets, not taming them."

June's eyes dragged slowly over the frames, but her focus kept darting back to Enjoy's throat, to the edge of her lip where she'd bitten it earlier in concentration.

"You see movement differently," June said.

Enjoy felt it. Not the compliment. The attention.

She stepped to the other side of the board, trying to give June space.

June followed.
A shadow tracking light.

When Enjoy reached to smooth a pinned page, June reached at the same time. Fingers brushed. Skin to skin. Warm. Fleeting. Electric.

June pulled back first, too fast. "Careful," she said, like a warning to herself more than Enjoy.

Enjoy swallowed. "Sorry—"

"Never apologize for being where I asked you to be," June cut in.

Silence swelled, thick and charged.

June took a step back, physically removing herself before the room caught fire. She picked up a bottle of water from the table, unscrewed it, and placed it next to Enjoy's elbow with military precision.

"Hydrate," she said.

The word was absurd and intimate.

Enjoy's laugh was nervous and soft. "Do you care about all your designers' hydration?"

June gave her a long look, slow enough to be an answer.

"No."

Enjoy stared. June stared back.

Then June left, door whisper-closing behind her like a promise she wasn't ready to keep.

===

A month before

The last train of the night groaned somewhere below the office. Rain chattered like impatient fingers on the floor-to-ceiling windows. The city glittered under wet glass.

Enjoy stood near the window, evaluating a revised sequence June had asked for. June joined her, presence sliding into the space like she belonged there, which she always did.

"Better?" June asked.

"Better," Enjoy confirmed, though she was staring at June's reflection instead of the mockup.

June shifted closer.
Close enough that Enjoy could see the pulse at June's neck.
Close enough to smell the faint citrus of her perfume.

Enjoy turned slightly. June did too. Their noses were nearly touching. Their breaths crossed, a warm negotiation.

"June..."

It was barely a sound. It was almost yes.

June's eyes flicked to Enjoy's mouth. A decision hovered. It would take half a breath to close the distance.

Then June stepped back like she'd been burned.

"No," she said.
Quiet. Pained.

Enjoy blinked. "I—did I—?"

"It's not you," June cut in, voice tight. "I won't risk... everything."

Everything = control.
Everything = career.
Everything = her heart.

The silence that followed was full of the kiss they didn't share.

"Okay," Enjoy whispered, pretending her ribcage wasn't splintering.

June collected her control piece by piece. "We should both go home."

Enjoy waited for June to turn away before she let her heartbreak show.

Almost kisses were the ones that ruined you.

June walked to the elevator without looking back.

If she did, she would have stayed.

====

June had rules.
She built her life on them.

Rule: Power is control.
Rule: Want is leverage.
Rule: Never let desire choose strategy.

Rules had kept her safe.
Rules had kept her exceptional.

But tonight, lying alone in a penthouse too big for silence, June's rules were losing.

She thought about:

• Enjoy's laugh, brightly colored, uncoached
• Enjoy's hair when it escapes discipline
• Enjoy's eyes when she speaks from instinct
• Enjoy's voice when she risks being wrong
• Enjoy's mouth when she nearly said yes
• Enjoy's courage where June has caution

Desire was not leverage.
It was surrender.
June hated surrender.

She sat up in bed and pressed her palms over her face.

If she kissed Enjoy....
there would be no going back.

Not to distance.
Not to control.
Not to being a woman the world could describe as untouchable.

She would become touched.
Chosen.
Vulnerable.

Love was a liability in her world.
But June was already compromised.

"If I kiss her," June whispered to the dark, "I will marry her."

It was not a joke.
It was the most terrifying truth she had ever admitted.

She threw the covers back and paced the room like a caged decision.

She wanted.
She feared wanting.

The city didn't care—it pulsed outside her windows, waiting.

June opened the balcony door and let the humid air press against her skin. Her heart was too loud. Her control was too thin.

She closed her eyes and inhaled the horizon.

Tomorrow, she promised herself,
I will be steel again.

Tomorrow would lie.

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Thank you for your patience, hoping to post more this weekend :) tell me your thoughts if any 😉