Arzu was tossed around on Ateş's shoulder like a ragdoll. She struggled, pounding his back with her fists, but the man's massive body didn't even flinch at her tiny resistance. She flailed like a bird caught in a snowstorm on the shoulder of a mountain of a man.
"Are you a brute or what? What's your problem with me? Let me go!" Arzu shouted, her voice echoing like the desperate cry of a trapped bird.
Ateş, however, walked on indifferently.
"You're such a pathetic man!" Arzu said, her eyes flashing with fury. "Is this what you do? Attack women who don't want you?"
Ateş's brow lifted slightly, his gaze darkened. He suddenly quickened his pace and placed Arzu roughly on the kitchen counter. The roughness wasn't from anger—it was a burst of suppressed rage and unrestrained passion.
Arzu was stunned. She struggled to catch her breath, locking eyes with Ateş. His eyes had narrowed, his jaw clenched. Speaking through gritted teeth, he growled:
"Not wanting me... is that so?"
Arzu remembered the previous night. Those dark, heated, guilt-ridden moments... She averted her gaze, her lips trembling as she answered:
"Yes! That night... I was drunk. A person under the influence… they can't even be considered a legal witness. Don't you know that?"
Ateş tilted his head slightly, speaking with mocking amusement:
"Oh, really... Is that so?"
Arzu tried to stand tall on the counter, lifting her chin defiantly as she looked up at him. Confronting his towering frame, she spoke with a snarl:
"Besides, how did you even get into my house that night? How dare you bite me! God knows what else you did, you pervert!"
She swallowed hard but couldn't stop herself, glaring again:
"Do you even know what I've been through today? I was treated like a shameless woman who jumps into bed with anyone! All because of you!"
Ateş's eyes flashed with a sudden fire. His jaw tightened, revealing how deeply those words had struck him.
"Who was it?" he asked in a low, furious voice. "Who dared to make such an indecent offer to you, Arzu?"
"None of your business!" Arzu snapped. "Here's your answer: None. Of. Your. Business! You should've thought about that before you attacked me."
Ateş suddenly grabbed her waist and pulled her close. The distance between them disappeared. The heat radiating from his body, mixed with the woody scent of his cologne, blurred Arzu's mind.
She swallowed hard. She tried to suppress her body's reaction, but the fire had already licked her skin.
While one of Ateş's hands held her waist, the other gently tucked her hair behind her ear. His touch was a whisper, but its impact was a roaring storm.
Arzu held her breath. Though she was a woman who had seen years of marriage, the touch of this stranger shook her as if she were being touched for the very first time. She turned her head away as if to resist.
But Ateş grasped her chin, forcing her to face him. His eyes, blazing with wild passion, bore into hers.
"Why?" he asked.
Arzu rolled her eyes, her voice firm but trembling inside:
"Why, what?"
"Why don't you want me?" Ateş said, his voice a near whisper, each word searing into her skin. His finger trailed from her chin down her neck, lingering over her delicate collarbone, and finally between her breasts.
Arzu's body burned wildly.
"Because..." Arzu panted, "because I don't even know you. Besides... I don't know if you care, but... I'm going through a rough time. I have a son. I'm not in a place to chase my desires like some reckless teenager."
A sly smile curled on Ateş's lips.
"Excuses... Always running away," he said with mocking disdain.
Suddenly he withdrew his touch. Arzu felt an agonizing void in its absence, as if her body was thirsting for him.
Trying to mask the chaos within her, she adjusted her nightgown and hopped down from the counter. Biting her lip, she muttered:
"Weak, huh... Judging without even knowing me."
In an instant, Ateş was in front of her. His face was inches from hers. His eyes burned with fury, the veins on his neck bulged, and sorrow mixed with anger carved deep lines into his features.
"If you're not weak, then what are you? First you call me to you, then you run. First you seek shelter, then you call me a pervert. First you moan under me, then shamelessly accuse me of assault! If that's not weakness, what is it, woman?"
His words echoed inside her chest. Each syllable shattered the truth she tried to hide. She averted her gaze, biting her lip. Knowing he was right stabbed her like a dagger.
Ateş shook his head. He cast her one last glance:
"Go on then, go cry over the ex-husband who threw you out like trash. But don't you dare come crawling back to me again."
He turned around. Grabbed his jacket from the sofa. Walked toward the door…
But just before he reached it, he paused and murmured without turning back:
"Don't forget to dust off the logs. Only then will they catch fire," he said, his voice calm, almost pitying. Then it turned cold:
"And next time, don't open the door for anyone dressed like that."
As his footsteps approached the door, two feelings wrestled inside Arzu: Compassion and desire. Who he was, what his past was, why he was there—it didn't even matter. The only thing she knew was: tonight, she wanted to fall apart in his arms.
Just as Ateş reached the door, Arzu bolted forward, flinging herself into his large frame, wrapping her arms tightly around him.
Ateş froze. He looked down and saw those small, delicate hands clutching his waist. Something hidden deep within his heart stirred with a mix of forbidden lust and long-forgotten longing.
He turned his head slightly.
Arzu, standing pressed against his chest, looked up at him from beneath his chin.
"I lied," she whispered, her voice trembling. Her breath shook, and her heart thundered as she confessed, "I… I want you. So much."
Those words were the spark that ignited Ateş. His eyes blazed, he opened his arms and scooped Arzu up. He pressed her against the wall. His lips descended on hers like a starving beast, not with the hope of satisfying his hunger with one kiss, but devouring her, molecule by molecule.
As Arzu ran her hands through his hair, wrapping her legs around his waist, their kisses blended in breathless rhythm. Her body trembled with every touch, and she pressed herself desperately against him. Every kiss from Ateş was a spark that lit her whole being, erasing the line between thought and pure, raw need.
In the throes of passion, Ateş gripped her hips, pulling her closer. His mouth hovered by her ear, growling:
"We need a bed... I might hurt you here."
Still panting, her chest rising and falling rapidly, Arzu lowered her head and swallowed hard. "At the end of the hall... My bedroom's there," she stammered, her voice trembling between desire and excitement.
Ateş's lips curled into a sly grin. The way she trembled, the confession in her hands, drove him insane. He slung Arzu over his shoulder once more with a swift move. Then, smacking her ass sharply, he muttered:
"Didn't want me, huh…"
A mischievous glint sparkled in his eyes, a dangerous promise curling his lips:
"Tonight, the only words I want to hear from your mouth are 'I want you,' ma'am."
Arzu laughed breathlessly at the shameless challenge. Biting her lip, she gasped:
"And if I don't say it?"
Ateş, carrying her down the hall, narrowed his eyes and growled through his teeth:
"If you don't... I'll make you scream it."
Arzu burst out in a broken laugh. The way this man burned for her was intoxicating.
Ateş reached the end of the hall, kicked the bedroom door open, and entered. He swiftly dropped Arzu onto the bed.
Her laughter shifted into a deep, wild breath of excitement.
She stared at him, her eyes wide with hunger.
Because Ateş, standing in front of her, was now slowly undressing without bothering to hide his confident, devastatingly irresistible body—each movement a seductive dance igniting her desire.
And Arzu was drunk on the thought that she was the sole audience to this blazing show.