THE NIGHT HIS WHISPERS BETRAYED HIM

Desire has a voice.
Sometimes it is louder than conscience.

That night, I couldn’t sleep. My husband snored beside me, and all I could think of was the way Michael’s hands had lingered on my waist earlier, the way his eyes had burned into me in the rearview mirror.

I tossed and turned until I gave up. Slipping out of bed, I padded to the balcony to breathe. The night air was cool, scented with jasmine. I didn’t expect to see him—yet there he was, downstairs by the car, wiping the windshield in the middle of the night.

“Michael?” I whispered down.

He looked up slowly, as though he had been waiting for me all along. “Madam, can’t sleep?”

I shook my head. He dropped the rag, walked to stand under the balcony. His voice was low, husky, laced with something dangerous.

“Every time you breathe, I hear it. Every time you move, I feel it. Do you know what you’re doing to me?”

My chest rose and fell. “Michael… don’t.”

But when I said it, I was leaning over the rail, listening harder.

He took a step back, tilted his face up to me. “You think I can’t smell your loneliness, madam? Even your silence tastes of hunger.”

My knees weakened. I wanted to retreat, but my body was already betraying me.

Minutes later, I found myself downstairs.
I don’t know what excuse I told myself. Maybe I needed water, maybe I wanted to check the locks. But the truth was simple: I wanted him.

We stood by the car, the metal still cool from the evening. He reached for my hand, pressed it to his chest. His heartbeat was a drum, fast, wild.

“Tell me to stop,” he breathed.
I didn’t.

His lips found mine—slow, reverent at first, then demanding. My back pressed against the car door, the world forgotten. Every kiss was a question, every touch a confession.

When his hands slid beneath my nightdress, I gasped, but I didn’t push him away. My body ached with a fire I had buried for years.

We didn’t go all the way that night. No. Instead, he stopped just when the world tilted, his forehead against mine, both of us trembling.

“Madam,” he whispered, “if I take you tonight, I’ll never be able to give you back.”

That single line hit me harder than his touch.
Because it wasn’t just lust anymore. It was a dangerous kind of wanting—the kind that builds kingdoms or burns them to ashes.

I stumbled back inside, shaking, but not from regret. My husband still slept upstairs. But I knew, deep down, that my soul had just crossed a line words could never erase.

And worse… I couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

I am Anyanwu Maureen Chinonso The pen that blèèds pain...but writes healing ✍️