Novels by Masterpiece Starr

Chapter 6MelI stayed pressed to him longer than made sense. His chest was warm and solid under my cheek, the hair there rough against my skin. My nipples dragged every time either of us breathed. Lower down, the front of his sweatpants was hard against my bare stomach. I could feel the shape of him through the thin cotton, thick and heavy, and my hips shifted once without asking me. Wetness slicked the inside of my thigh where I was standing against him.His hands stayed locked around my upper arms. He didn’t pull me closer. He didn’t push me off either. I heard him swallow.“Mel.” His voice was low and uneven. “You’re not wearing anything under that.”I should have stepped back. Instead my fingers tightened on his forearm. “I know.”He let out a short breath that hit the top of my hair. One of his thumbs moved, just once, against the inside of my arm. Then he went still again.“Your mom asked me to look after you,” he said. The words came out careful, like he was testing them. “N

Chapter 5MelThe words landed after the ones in my head, and for a second the two kitchens sat on top of each other. His fingers were still inside me. Then they weren’t. The counter was solid under my hip. The glass was cold and heavy in my hand. David stood where he had been standing, shirt open at the throat of nothing because he wasn’t wearing one, sweatpants low, brow drawn like he had already said my name and I had not come back the first time.“You okay?” My mouth opened but nothing useful came out. “Yes.” It snagged on the second letter. I swallowed and tried again, eyes on the tile between his feet. “Yes. I’m fine.”"Are you sure? Because you look..." He moved towards me. One hand came up, palm open, aimed at the side of my neck the way someone checks a temperature when they don’t trust the answer they just got. His fingertips had barely met skin...warm, a little rough at the pads...when my shoulder hit the cabinet and the glass knocked against the counter.“Do not touch

Chapter 4I went downstairs a little after midnight for a glass of water, careful to keep my steps light so I would not wake him. The house was dark except for the soft glow coming from the kitchen, and when I reached the doorway I stopped short.He was already there. As always. Was he doing this on purpose?But this time, he was shirtless, leaning against the counter with a glass in his hand, sweatpants hanging low on his hips. The light above the stove caught the lines of his chest and stomach, and for a second I forgot why I had come down at all. My grip tightened on the empty glass I was holding. I should have turned around. Instead I walked in and headed straight for the sink, keeping my eyes forward.“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked, voice low and rough from the late hour.“Just needed water,” I said, and filled the glass without looking at him.I felt him watching me. The air in the kitchen seemed warmer than it should have been. When I turned off the tap and finally glanced over,

Chapter 3Sleep came late and left early. I woke before six with the same restless feeling from the night before and finally forced myself downstairs for coffee, wearing only an old T-shirt and shorts because I expected the kitchen to be empty. It was not.He was already there, standing at the counter in the same low-hanging sweatpants he had worn the evening before and nothing else. His bare back faced me as he poured coffee, the muscles shifting under his skin with every small movement. I stopped in the doorway longer than I should have, caught by the sight of him, before he glanced over his shoulder and caught me looking.“Morning.”I muttered something that was not a real answer and moved to the cabinet for a mug, keeping as much distance as the kitchen allowed. We moved around each other in silence while the coffee finished brewing. I could feel him behind me, close enough that the air felt warmer, and I hated how aware of him I had become in less than a day.I took my coffee

Chapter 2I stayed in my room longer than I needed to, sitting on the edge of the bed with the door closed while the house settled into an unfamiliar quiet around me. The sun had dropped lower outside the window and the light in the room turned soft and gold, yet I made no move to unpack beyond setting my suitcase in the corner. Every sound from downstairs felt sharper than it should have...the faint closing of a cabinet, the low hum of the refrigerator, the occasional creak of the floorboards...and each one reminded me that he was down there and that my mother was not.I told myself I could simply stay upstairs for the rest of the night. I had a half-charged laptop, a water bottle in my bag, and enough stubbornness to skip dinner if it meant avoiding him. But hunger eventually won, after nearly an hour I forced myself to stand and open the door. The hallway smelled faintly of soap and something warmer, as if the steam from his earlier shower had lingered in the air, and I hated t

Chapter 1I stood on the front porch with my suitcase resting against my leg and pressed my thumb to the sensor, already sensing that something was wrong because the lock did not give its usual soft click of recognition. I tried again more firmly, then a third time, but the small light stayed dark and the door remained closed, leaving me outside the house I had grown up in as if I were a stranger. The evening air felt too still around me while I stared at the unfamiliar lock, and the quiet disappointment of not finding my mother waiting settled heavier than I expected because the only reason I had come home from college at all was to see her.I missed her more than I liked to admit after months of short calls and rushed visits, yet the thought of who else might be inside made my stomach tighten with pure dislike. Six months earlier she had married a man I neither trusted nor cared for, and in those six months I had managed to avoid being alone with him for longer than a few polite