LOGINI sat, then lay back against the dark sheets. He followed, still fully clothed, and settled beside me. One hand stroked from my collarbone down between my breasts, over my stomach, and lower, until his fingers rested just above the place where I ached most.“I’m going to touch you first,” he said. “I’m going to make sure this body is ready for me. You’ve never done this. I won’t hurt you more than necessary.”His fingers slipped between my thighs and found me already slick. The first direct stroke over my clit made my hips jerk. A small, startled sound escaped me. Dominic watched my face as he explored, learning the pressure and rhythm that made my breathing stutter. He circled the swollen bud slowly, then slid one finger lower and pressed carefully at my entrance.“Breathe,” he murmured. “Let me in.”The single finger sank into me with exquisite care. The stretch was ne
Evening settled over the city in slow layers of violet and silver. I had spent the entire day moving through the penthouse like a guest who already knew she would never leave. I tried to read. I tried to eat. I tried not to replay the kiss from the morning—the controlled heat of his mouth, the way my body had answered before my mind could stop it. By the time the sky outside the glass walls turned fully dark, my nerves were pulled tight enough to snap.Dominic returned just after seven. He found me standing near the windows in the same cream sweater and black leggings he had left for me. He had changed into a black shirt with the sleeves rolled once and dark trousers. For a moment he simply looked at me across the wide space, the same calm intensity in his eyes that had followed me for years.“Come here, Ava.”My bare feet were quiet on the floor as I crossed him. He did not reach for me immediately. He studied my face as if measuring how much of the morning’s kiss still lived under my
I woke to the low sound of rain against the glass and the realization that I was no longer in my own bed.For a few disoriented seconds, I stared at the unfamiliar ceiling, at the soft gray light filtering through floor-to-ceiling windows, at the expensive quiet of a room that did not belong to me. Then everything returned in a single heavy rush. My mother’s voice. The debt. Dominic was standing in the living room of our old apartment telling me I was his.I sat up slowly. Someone had left a folded set of clothes at the foot of the bed: soft black leggings, a thin cashmere sweater the color of cream, underwear still in tissue paper. Everything is my size. The thought made my stomach tighten.I showered in the stone bathroom, dressed, and forced myself to open the door.Dominic was in the main living area, seated in a low armchair near the windows with a cup of black coffee and a tablet. He looked up when I entered. He had changed into a dark sweater and black trousers. The same calm,
A faint, almost humorless smile touched his mouth. “I was. I waited until you were old enough. I waited until the debt was large enough that she would have no choice. I waited until the moment you had nowhere else to go. Patience is a useful thing, Ava.”I felt heat rise in my face, part shame, part fury, part something I refused to name. “You could have helped her without this. You had the money.”“I could have. But then I would not have you.”The simple honesty of the statement stole the air from the room. He did not pretend this was mercy. He did not dress it up as protection. He had wanted me, and he had used my mother’s ruin to take me.I turned away from him and walked toward the windows, needing space, needing to look at anything that was not his face. The city glittered far below, indifferent and bright. My reflection in the glass looked pale and small.Behind me, I heard him move. He did not touch
Dominic’s gaze shifted to her. “The papers are signed. The transfer will clear by morning. You’re free of it.”She nodded quickly, eyes wet, and muttered something that might have been a “Thank You." Then she looked at me one last time, face full of a guilt she would never know how to carry, and left the room. Her bedroom door closed with a soft, final click.We were alone.Dominic studied me for a long moment. He did not smile. He did not offer comfort. He simply looked at me the way a man looks at something he has finally been allowed to claim.“You know why I’m here.”“Yes.”“You understand what was agreed.”I forced my voice to stay steady. “I understand my mother sold something that wasn’t hers to sell.”A faint flicker of something—approval, maybe—moved through his expression.“Get your bag,” he said qu
Morning light crept through the cracked blinds in thin gray stripes, landing across the floor like it did not want to be here any more than I did. I had not slept. Every time I closed my eyes I heard my mother’s voice from the night before, thin and final, telling me there had been no other choice. The words sat in my chest like stones.I stayed in bed until the smell of burnt coffee drifted under the door. She was awake. Of course, she was. People who sell their daughters do not get the luxury of sleeping in.When I finally opened my bedroom door, the apartment felt smaller than it had the night before. The same stained carpet. The same leaning stack of unopened mail on the hallway table. The same silence that always followed one of her disasters. Only now the silence take a new shape. It knew what had been done to me.She sat at the kitchen table in the same faded robe, hands wrapped around a chipped mug. Dark circles bruised the skin under her eyes. When she looked up, guilt flashe







