Martina had never realized how loud clothing stores were.
Not in the normal sense—not the music or the chatter or the dressing room curtains that apparently existed only to haunt people who valued privacy.
No.
She meant the internal screaming.
Her internal screaming.
Because the clock on her phone kept blinking at her like it was personally offended.
6:42 PM.
River had said ten minutes. Ten. And she was already two past that, still stuck in line behind a woman arguing over a return policy and a cashier who looked like she'd rather be anywhere else.
Martina shifted her weight, nearly tripping over a rogue hanger on the floor. Her arms were full of bags, her phone was slipping from her pocket, and her brain was doing that thing where it screamed in all caps while her face tried to look calm.
She was not calm.
She was a walking, sweating, over-perfumed disaster.
When it was finally her turn at the register, she smiled too hard, dumped the bags too fast, and forgot her card PIN. Twice.
"Ma'am?" the cashier asked, blinking.
Martina blinked back. "Right. Sorry. I just—uh—wrong card. I mean, right card. Wrong brain."
The cashier gave her a look that said she'd seen worse. Barely.
Martina punched in the numbers again, praying to every deity she didn't believe in. The machine beeped. Approved.
She let out a breath like she'd just survived a hostage situation.
Then the cashier handed her the receipt and the bagged items, and said, "You want the swimsuit in a separate bag?"
Martina stared. "The what?"
"The red swimsuit. You bought it."
"I—" She looked down at the receipt. Sure enough. One devil-red swimsuit, size small.
She hadn't even meant to pick it up. It must've gotten tangled in the dresses.
"Oh. Uh. No. It's fine," she said, voice too high, too bright. "It's for… someone else."
The cashier didn't care. She bagged it with the rest.
Martina walked away with her heart pounding, her cheeks burning, and the devil's dress and its aquatic cousin mocking her from inside the plastic.
And already, the weight of the secret was wearing her like a second skin and corroding her skin like mercury, yet her task had any doubled because of That PERFECT husband of her!
Martina found them in the men's section—Kai inspecting jeans like he was performing peer review, Jonna offering increasingly questionable fashion advice.
"That one makes your butt look aggressively flat," Jonna said, pointing.
Kai held the denim up to himself and scowled. "I don't need this slander."
Martina approached, lifting her bags. "Hey."
Two heads turned. Two grins formed instantly—predatory, gossip-scenting grins.
Kai lifted a brow. "You took long in there, you know in dressing room."
"Girl shopping's shopping demands perfection," she said, trying for breezy. It came out like she'd been lightly electrocuted.
Jonna grinned at the bags. "Wow, someone had a productive trip."
Kai snickered. "Yeah. Super productive. Especially considering Professor River practically stormed out of the mall earlier. What did you do to him? He looked quiet pissed!"
Martina froze for half a second.
Right.
They'd seen him leave.
Brows drawn.
Jaw tight.
Striding away like fury condensed into a doctoral candidate.
Her chest tightened. She hated how much she remembered that image. How much her stomach clenched just thinking about it- the thought that it was only her who knew that it wasn't anger...rather the intense desire which were fuming out like radiations from chernobyl's.
"His social battery died, I guess"
awkwardly, She shifted the bags in her arms, the plastic handles biting into her palms, but it was the heat creeping up her neck that made her fingers twitch. The weight of River's stare still clung to her skin, like a bruise that hadn't bloomed yet.
Kai tilted his head, one brow arched as he watched her squirm.
"He was definitely watching you like a hawk," he said, voice edged with amusement. "I thought he was gonna bite someone."
Jonna laughed, but her eyes flicked toward the parking lot, where River had stood moments ago like a storm cloud in a tailored coat.
"Yeah," she said, drawing out the word. "Like—'Touch her and die' vibes. It was kind of hot, not gonna lie."
The laugh that bubbled up in her throat never made it out. Her smile faltered, caught between flattery and fear. Because she remembered the way River's gaze had sliced through the glass storefront, how his jaw had clenched when Kai had leaned too close, how his hand had brushed her lower back not to guide, but to claim.
And now, even in his absence, she could feel him.
Watching.
Waiting.
Burning.
She swallowed.
"Yeah about that, all the things he said- about---...actually, We got into a pretty heated argument at university today and might have gone a little to far."
"You talking about the top trends of the week?! The infamous slap of thousand years?!" Jonna asked wide eyed flashing her phone with ever going pop up notifications of the university chat box.
She nod but half in embarrassment and rest in guilt.
"And To punish me, he choose the deadliest mode- to embarrass me in front of my peers as he made me pick out dresses for... for his wife."
'Gods....I'm at your mercy.' that was what the little pause were used for.
Kai's head whipped so fast it was a medical event.
"His what?"
"Wife." She shrugged, pretending her heart wasn't doing small, guilty cartwheels. "You guys never noticed the ring?"
Jonna blinked. "Wait—wait—Professor River is married?"
Kai's mouth dropped open. "To who? A Victorian ghost?"
Martina almost choked.
God. The universe really hated her.
Jonna grabbed Kai's arm. "Hold on. This is huge. Why doesn't he talk about her?"
"He's private," Martina said.
Painfully private.
So private she might as well be a confidential government file shoved into a locked cabinet.
"So what's she like?" Kai asked.
For a moment, Martina's breath snagged.
How did someone describe themselves without describing themselves?
"He said she's beautiful," Martina said, soft but steady.
Funny how saying it out loud still made something in her chest go warm.
And hurt.
"And they've been married a while?" Jonna asked.
"Something like that."
Kai let out a low whistle. "No wonder he never looks at anyone on campus."
"Always serious, always in his own world," Jonna added. "Wife at home, huh… I bet she's all in pearls and diamonds- you know a classy one."
"Ah yeah I couldn't imagine any other type sustaining with that kind of brooding personality"
Martina swallowed but her smile didn't flatten.
She shouldn't care how they talked about him.
She definitely shouldn't care that they were talking about her without knowing it.
But she did.
It landed like a soft bruise each time. Kai laughed, but Jonna's gaze sharpened.
"Still weird. He doesn't seem like the type to hide something like that."
She shifted the bags again, fingers aching.
"That's why he punished me like this. 'Embarrassment for embarrassment.'"
Kai grinned.
"Making you parade around with bags of lingerie in front of us? Cold-blooded."
Jonna snickered.
"Poetic. You slap him in class, he makes you his personal shopper. Twisted karma."
She smiled—tight, brittle. Her chest coiled.
They didn't know.
They were laughing.
And she was lying.
Jonna's attention flicked to the bag in Martina's hand.
"Wait… he said his wife will wear that dress?"
"Oh." Martina tightened her grip. "Yeah. The red one."
Kai let out a low whistle. "Okay, wow. Professor River's wife has taste."
"And confidence," Jonna added. "Trust, too. I mean, letting him send a student to pick out something so… personal? That's big."
Martina stared at the bag.
It felt heavier now.
Heavy with implication.
With truth she couldn't say.
With a marriage she couldn't claim.
"That's why she's a secret," Martina murmured.
Kai nodded slowly. "Makes sense. He keeps his personal life in a vault."
"Honestly?" Jonna said. "She must be lucky."
Lucky.
The word pricked under her ribs.
She glanced toward the parking lot. River wasn't pacing. Wasn't visible. But she felt him—like a wire pulled taut, humming.
Kai frowned.
"You okay? You keep looking over there."
"Ah nothing" her breath hitched as if like a thief caught into an act,
" I have to be home early. mom is coming for the weekend."
Jonna blinked.
"Two guests? That's a full house."
"It's going to be Busy weekend." Kia commented.
"We're going for Mini vacation to Alps."
Kai whistled.
"The Alps? Fancy."
Jonna laughed.
"Lucky you. I'll be binge-watching trash TV and eating cereal."
She backed away.
"I gotta run. Need to deliver these to Professor first, then head home. Enjoy your weekend!"
She waved—too fast, too bright.
Jonna's voice followed.
"Wait—Professor wants you to deliver the dress too? That's… kinda weird like 'human enslavement' weird, huh?"
Kai grinned.
"Or romantic. Like some secret mission."
She froze.
Too close.
She forced a laugh—light, flirty.
"Repenting for my sins, See you Monday!"
And she turned, walking too fast toward the car.
Kai saluted her with the jeans. "Tell Professor Grumpy we said hi."
"Better not," Jonna snickered.
Martina forced a laugh, waved, and walked away—her heart twisting with each step.
She found River outside the store, leaning against the car, hands in his pockets, shoulders tense in that silent, simmering way that made her entire body feel like a live wire.
He didn't speak when she approached.
Didn't speak when she opened the door.
Didn't speak when she slid inside.
Instead, he reached over the moment she closed the door—fingers hooking her waist and pulling her across the center console until she was half in his lap, half tangled against his chest.
"You took longer than ten minutes," he murmured, voice a low, slow drag of danger and warmth.
His hand slid up her thigh.
"You know what that means… don't you?"
Her breath stuttered.
"I—I clarified somethings with Kai and Jonna."
His thumb stroked her skin.
"Oh?" he murmured. "Clarified what?"
She swallowed.
"That we're…"
Her voice caught.
The ache pressed right against her ribs.
"That we're nothing."
His hand froze.
Just for a beat.
Just long enough for her to feel the truth of it hit him.
She said it.
She actually said it.
"...We're nothing."
The second the words left her mouth, River's hand tightened on her thigh like she'd personally insulted his dissertation. Firm, possessive, hot—exactly the grip of a man who was trying (and failing) to remember basic university conduct policies.
"Is that so?"
His neck did that tense flex thing. The sinful one. The one that should be illegal in five countries.
"You made damn sure they know you don't belong to anyone but me?"
She gaped at him.
"I told them you have a wife. A fictional wife. A wife who I invented because you refuse to act normal."
He gave her a look like she'd said he had three heads and continued, "That I was shopping for her as a punishment for what happened in class today."
He flicked his gaze to her, incredulous, broody, and about three seconds from spontaneously combusting.
"And they believed it?"
"Yes, River, because people believe things when men don't act like feral wolves in public. Thought lucky for you, sweetie, You look like you do taxes for fun. People believe anything you say or do is a sociopathic act...so, in conclusion we are both safe"
She crossed her arms, glaring at him.
"And please stop with your possessive-alpha tone. I was saving both our asses. Your job and my virtue."
He sighed, calming his hand over her thigh- warm and pleasantly exhausted-
"Thank you" she said a deep breath and her eyes retracting to the city lights fading by.
The storm is finally over, she sighed with relief.
The car turn down a quiet residential street with a sharp turn like he was about to park the car and park his morals alongside it.
"You still made me wait."
His hand resumed its trek up her thigh with the slow determination of a man climbing Mount Everest.
"And do you know how hard it was to pretend I wasn't internally combusting? Watching you giggle with Kai and Jonna like—like a normal student?"
She proudly held up a small shopping bag.
"I brought you complimentary perfume."
He stared at it.
Then at her.
Then back at it—as if expecting it to explain itself.
"Perfume. Great. Fantastic. Perfect. This will definitely help me not lose my mind."
"Men are simple creatures," she said wisely almost giggling like she had tamed the beast.
His fingers slid under her dress.
"Sometimes we are."
Then—because this man had zero chill—he hit the brakes so hard she nearly saw her ancestors.
"RIVER—"
He turned off the headlights.
And left his hand right where Satan would leave it.
"Don't move," he said, like he wasn't already breaking twelve university policies and possibly four human rights laws.
He turned toward her, eyes dark, intense, dramatic. The kind of look men in romcoms give before doing something stupid and life-ruining.
"You buy me perfume," he said, stroking her thigh like a villain petting a cat, "Like it's a peace offering. Like you don't know exactly what drives me insane."
He leaned in to her ear.
"It's not the perfume, baby, It's you."
"We had a deal," she squeaked.
"Screw the deal."
His lips met her neck. She met Jesus.
"You've been testing my restraint all day. Think I can wait that long? Not a chance." his teeth grazing her pulse point—teasing, claiming.
"But—we're in the middle of a residential street—"
His hand stilled. Just for a moment. Then he leaned back, meeting her eyes. Moonlight caught the wildness in his gaze.
"Then consider this your punishment. For making me wait..."
"For playing with fire in front of Kai and Jonna. For saying we're nothing. When you are well aware..."
His thumb brushed over her underwear.
"that you are my everything"
Her brain shut down.
He shifted closer, voice dropping to a whisper that curled like smoke.
"Don't worry. I won't ruin you completely here."
His thumb brushed over the thin fabric, slow and deliberate.
"Just enough to remind you who owns this body."
And then—
And then—
Her stomach betrayed her.
Grrrrrrooooowl.
As Loud. Obnoxious. Mortal as zeus's thunder.
River froze.
Blinking.
Processing.
Loading…
Then, slowly, he pulled back, one brow arching. The smirk returned, curling at the corner of his mouth.
"…You're hungry?"
Disbelief, dark humor, and a flicker of frustration tangled in his voice.
"All this tension… all this sin… and your stomach picks now to remind me you haven't eaten since lunch?"
"I could… gain some energy before you know—"
He let out a low, exasperated laugh—half turned on, half done with her nonsense. His hand finally retreated.
"Energy. Of course. Snacks. Why wouldn't you think about snacks at a moment like this?"
He started the car again, muttering something about "students these days" and "celestial punishment.", shaking his head with a smirk.
"Fine. We're going home. You're eating. And when you finish the last bite—"
He leaned in, voice deep enough to cause property damage.
"Then I'm finishing what we started."
"You're a scary dork," she said with a smirk, pulling herself back and her both hand crossed over her chest as if she were guarding her virtue.
"And you," he said, kissing her hair like a territorial cat,
"are a tiny, starving chaos goblin."