Housebound with the Blackridge Heirs novel Chapter 100

Chapter 100

Chapter 100

Maya

The kiss didn’t stay gentle for long, even though I told myself it should.

I tried to pull back first, not because I didn’t want him, but because my mind was still anchored in reality enough to remember the way his body had looked only days ago, pale and broken and unmoving beneath room lights and whispered fears.

I rested my hands against his chest, intending to slow things down, to remind both of us that healing didn’t mean whole, and that wanting something didn’t mean we were allowed to take it.

Leo didn’t let me.

He leaned into me instead, his hand sliding to the back of my neck with a certainty that stole the air from my lungs, his mouth pressing more firmly to mine as if he had made a decision and refused to second-guess it.

The kiss deepened, heat blooming where there had been careful restraint seconds ago, and I felt the quiet control he carried everywhere begin to crack, just enough to let the hunger underneath show.

“Leo,” I murmured against his mouth, my fingers tightening in his sweater, torn between the way my body responded and the worry curling in my chest. “You’re still-”

“I know,” he said softly, the words brushing my lips instead of stopping the kiss. “I don’t care.”

That should have stopped me.

Instead, it made something in me give.

The world narrowed to sensation, to the warmth of him and the way his presence felt steadier than anything had a right to feel after everything we had been through. His hands moved carefully but with intent, sliding along my back like he was memorizing me, like he was afraid this moment might disappear if he didn’t hold onto it hard enough.

It wasn’t explicit, wasn’t reckless, but it was charged in a way that made my pulse race and my thoughts blur, my body leaning into his without permission from the part of me that knew better.

And then the bond flared.

Not Leo’s.

Caden’s.

It hit me like a sudden pressure in my chest, sharp and heavy and aching with anger that wasn’t quite anger and pain that wasn’t quite pain. Betrayal threaded through it, raw and instinctive, the kind that came from feeling something without context or explanation, and my breath stuttered as the bond tightened reflexively, as if reaching for me and finding me somewhere it didn’t want me to be.

I froze.

The kiss broke as I inhaled sharply, my hands pushing against Leo’s chest without meaning to, my head filling with static as guilt slammed into me all at once.

Leo felt it too.

I saw it in the way his eyes darkened, the way his body went still beneath my hands, like he had stepped off a ledge and realized too late how far the ground was below him. He pulled back fully then, putting distance between us even though it clearly cost him something to do it.

“I’m sorry,” he said immediately, the words tumbling out in a rush that didn’t match his usual composure. “I shouldn’t have I wasn’t thinking. You didn’t do anything wrong. This is on me.”

“Leo-”

“No,” he said, shaking his head, already retreating emotionally even though his body hadn’t moved. “I know what this looks like. I know what it does to him. I won’t be the reason you tear yourself apart.”

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Chapter 100

The look on his face hurt more than the guilt ever could.

It wasn’t anger or accusation, but resignation, like he had expected this moment to end badly from the start and had allowed himself to hope anyway. His jaw tightened as he looked away from me, eyes fixed on the floor like that was safer than meeting my gaze.

“I crossed a line,” he added quietly. “I won’t do it again.”

The bond with Caden still pulsed, distant but present, and the weight of it pressed down on me hard enough that my throat burned. I felt selfish and cruel all at once, torn between what my body wanted, what my heart was discovering, and the loyalty I had already given to someone who wasn’t here to see any of this.

I hated that it made me hesitate.

And then Aelera stirred.

Her presence brushed against my awareness like warm hands settling over my shoulders, steady and calm and entirely unbothered by the chaos spiraling through my thoughts. There was no judgment there, no warning or fear, just a quiet sense of rightness that made my chest loosen instead of tighten.

‘You’re allowed to want,’ she murmured gently. ‘And you’re allowed to choose again, even if the choice is complicated.’

I swallowed, my gaze lifting back to Leo.

The agony on his face stopped me cold.

It wasn’t regret over the kiss that twisted his expression, but regret over believing, even for a moment, that he was allowed to reach for something he wanted. His shoulders had drawn inward, posture closing off like he was already preparing to step back into the careful distance he kept between himself and everything that mattered too much.

I crossed the space between us before I could overthink it.

My hands framed his face, forcing him to look at me, and the surprise in his eyes almost made me falter.

Almost.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I said firmly, my voice steadier than I felt. “And I don’t regret it.”

“Maya,” he started, pain flickering across his features, “you don’t have to say that just because—”

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