But then…
His thoughts snapped to her.
Maya.
He clenched his jaw, a bitter taste rising in his throat.
She was different. Not because she was special – but because she acted like she was. Like she was too good for his attention. Too clean. Too polite.
She’d been brushing him off for nearly a year.
No matter how kind he pretended to be. No matter how patient. How generous.
The flowers, the takeout, the ride offers hell, he’d even gotten her tickets to a concert once. She never accepted a thing. Always smiling, always soft, but always no.
It drove him insane.
His obsession wasn’t an accident – it was deliberate. Controlled.
A carefully crafted performance.
He made sure to be there at every appointment – holding something thoughtful. Takeout. A rose. A compliment wrapped in concern.
Just enough to look sincere.
Just enough to convince her.
But beneath the charm was a plan. A calculated game.
There was something about that innocence. That false fucking modesty. Like she knew exactly what kind of reaction she stirred and chose to deny him anyway.
It wasn’t just rejection.
It was a challenge.
Maya didn’t flirt. She didn’t beg. She didn’t lean in the way the others did.
And that made him want her more.
She worked at some cheap coffee shop by day, studied at night, and played caregiver the rest of the time. Poor. Exhausted. Too busy keeping her brother alive to think straight.
She was drowning – and still had the nerve to pretend she was better than him?
It was laughable.
And yet… She haunted him.
She didn’t give him lust. She gave him resistance. And that – more than anything-was what he couldn’t stand.
He wanted to break it.
Bend her to him. Prove that her sweet act was just a mask like the rest.
And the hospital noticed.
Whispers followed her through the halls.
He knew the hospital gossip would do the rest.
The nurses who used to warm his bed now glared when she passed. They whispered rumors in the break room, spinning tales of his latest “interest” in Maya, hoping to turn him away.
Some talked about Maya’s lack of sophistication, her messy life, her desperate situation caring for a sick brother while juggling work and school.
Others spun darker lies that Maya was trying to trap Beckett, that she was beneath him.
Some muttered she was after his money. Others said she was cold, manipulative, stringing him along to get free treatment for her brother.
“She’s probably sleeping with him already,” one hissed once in the staff lounge.
“Bet she’s begging for discounts.”
“She acts so innocent, but trust me, girls like that always end up on their knees.”
Jealousy. Pettiness.
He let it fester.
Let it poison her reputation slowly.
And still, Maya didn’t budge.
He remembered once – just once – when she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, smiled softly, and said, “Thank you, Doctor.”
Just that. Innocent. Simple.
But it had replayed in his head for weeks.
The way her lips curved. The light in her eyes.
In his mind, it wasn’t gratitude.
It was an invitation.
She should’ve been begging me.
Instead, she looked at me like I was a roach on the floor.
She never respond to his messages. Refused his ride offers. Thanked him for gifts but never accepted them.
She smiled like she was too graceful to be rude – too sweet to say what she really felt.
Their jealousy was as loud as Beckett’s lust, a poisonous symphony echoing through the sterile halls.
But Beckett didn’t care. He thrived on it.
The attention. The power.
He was used to getting what he wanted.
He was used to owning people.
And Maya – annoying, defiant, untouchable Maya – was his latest conquest.
He didn’t just want to possess her body.
He wanted to shatter her resistance.
Control her.
Make her his.
Even if it meant destroying her in the process.
Because in Beckett’s world, love was never clean.
It was a battlefield.
And he was determined to win.
But now…
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.