LOGINJoella’s POVThe next morning, as I got ready for work, my mind pulled me in two different directions and refused to pick one.One part of me could not stop thinking about my fate at the office. Was I going to be laid off? Would I walk in and find my name already halfway off a list? Would somebody smile at me in the kitchen and then later box up my things like I had never been there at all?The other part was worse.The stubborn part.That part kept drifting back to dark eyes in a starry night and fingers that made me gush. To a rooftop rail. To a timer on a phone. To a man who licked my come off his hand and called me a word I still did not know how to say.Asteraki.I stood in front of the bathroom mirror with my toothbrush in my mouth and glared at my own face.“No,” I said around the foam. “We are not doing this.”My reflection did not look convinced.I spat, rinsed, and tried again, out loud this time, like that would make it stick.“You do not even know his name. He made you com
Joella’s POV“Then give it back.”He smiled against my skin.“Ask nicely, asteraki.”I hated how wet that made me.“Please,” I whispered. “Please don’t leave me like this.”“Like what?”His fingers curled, just once, and stopped again.I made a broken sound.“Close. I’m so close. It hurts.”“That’s not pain,” he said. “That’s your body learning what it can do. You said no man ever made you come. I’m not going to rush the first time and let you think it was an accident.”He started moving again.Slower than before. Deeper. His thumb returned to my clit in lazy circles that were almost worse than the fast ones. My knees threatened to give out. I pressed my forehead to his chest and tried not to moan.“That’s it,” he whispered. “Take it. Quiet. Let me feel this tight little pussy get desperate.”“I am desperate.”“I know. I can feel you dripping down my wrist.”A shaky laugh left me. It turned into another gasp when he rubbed my clit firmer.“You’re evil.”“You told me to prove it.” His
Joella’s POVI gasped. My hips jerked toward him like my body had already chosen a side. He only smirked, watching my face, circling that swollen little spot through silk that was already ruined.“There it is,” he murmured. “Soaked already. All that talking, and this pretty pussy was ready before I even touched you.”“Don’t flatter yourself.”“I’m not flattering myself.” His fingers pressed firmer, slow and filthy. “I’m feeling how wet you are. You came up here aching, didn’t you? Standing at this rail, pretending you only wanted air.”I couldn’t answer. Not honestly.He leaned in and kissed my neck. Open-mouthed. Hot. His teeth grazed the skin just under my ear, and my knees went weak. While he did that, his fingers pushed my panties aside and found my naked clit.Bare.Direct.No more fabric between us.The double assault tore a moan out of me. His mouth on my neck. His fingers sliding over that swollen little bud like he had done this to me before. I clutched his shoulders and trie
Joella’s POVNot awkward. Shocked. Like I had told him something that should not exist.“You’re serious.”“Unfortunately.”He stared at me.“A man has never made you come.”“Not one,” I said. “And before you start, yes, I’ve tried. Yes, I told them what I liked. Yes, they all thought they were going to be different. They were not.”His jaw tightened.“That’s insane.”“That’s my sex life.”He let out a slow breath, like he needed a second with it.“So you’ve been with men who don’t know what they’re doing,” he said, “and then you decided it was you.”“I decided it was safer not to expect much.”He looked at me then. Really looked. Like the idea offended him personally.“That’s not how it should be.”I laughed under my breath, trying to put the armor back on.“Let me guess. You give all your women mind-blowing orgasms and they send you flowers in the morning.”He didn’t smile.“I never leave a woman unsatisfied.”The way he said it made my thighs press together. Heat slid low in my bell
Joella’s POVThe hallway back there was quieter. My heels clicked too loud. The music got thinner the farther I walked, until it was only a beat under the floor. I pushed the door open and found a small elevator. Dark glass. Gold buttons. It looked expensive. The kind of elevator people like me were not supposed to wander into.I got in anyway.The doors shut. I caught myself in the glass. Short dress. Hair a little messy from dancing. A girl going up instead of back to the noise.“Five minutes,” I told my reflection. “Then you go downstairs and act normal.”The elevator opened onto the roof.Warm night. City lights everywhere. Yellow. White. Little red dots moving on the streets far below. The club sounded far away now, like it belonged to somebody else’s night. Wind pushed my hair across my mouth. I walked to the rail and held on.The metal was cool under my hands.New York did not give you a real dark sky. Too much glow. Still, I looked up like it might tell me something useful.I
Joella’s POVThe first one after that night called me baby in public and forgot me in private. He liked how I looked on his arm. He did not like how I sounded when I asked where this was going.The second one said I talked too much. He said it like a compliment at first. Cute. Fiery. Then it became a problem. He wanted a girl who would laugh at his jokes and not notice when he went missing for three days.The third one had a girlfriend. I found out because she texted me from his phone by accident. I made it a story later. I did not tell anyone I threw up in my bathroom after.The fourth one was sweet until he got comfortable. Comfortable meant he stopped trying. Comfortable meant I became a place he came to when he was bored and left when he felt better.The fifth one talked about the future like it was already happening. Then he moved. The calls got shorter. Then they stopped. No fight. No ending. Just air, and me staring at my phone like an idiot.The sixth one said he loved me.Tha
I spun around with a sharp intake of breath, my hand flying to my chest.Victor stood just a few feet away, watching me with those piercing blue eyes. He was so quiet I hadn't heard him approach at all. He'd changed since earlier—now he wore a dark suit, perfectly fitted, the kind that probably cos
Lia's POVBut even as I flew away from the island, even as physical distance grew between me and what had happened there, I knew something fundamental had shifted.I wasn't the same woman who'd boarded this plane days ago.I wasn't the same woman who'd accepted Rob's neglect and disrespect as norma
When I finally got to my room, I stopped in the doorway and just stared.It was beautiful. Really, genuinely beautiful. The room was spacious and airy, with high ceilings and large windows that looked out over the water. The last light of the evening was painting the Mediterranean in shades of oran
Those blue eyes. God, those blue eyes.Up close, they were even more intense than I'd noticed from across the room. They were the kind of blue you saw in pictures of the Mediterranean—deep and clear and impossibly bright. They held a sharpness to them, an intelligence, like he was taking in everyth







