LOGINChapter 2Julian’s POVThe entire next day I avoided her like she was radioactive.I slipped out before dawn, pounding ten punishing miles through the neighborhood until my lungs burned and sweat stung my eyes. Then the gym — deadlifts until my grip failed, pull-ups until my shoulders screamed. By noon I was in the garage with the door down, pretending to tune a lawnmower that hadn’t needed work in years. Anything to keep my hands busy and my mind off the images that kept replaying on loop: Eve’s back arched off the mattress like a bowstring, thighs trembling around my ears, her cunt clenching and gushing while she screamed my name and I pumped every drop deep into my father’s widow.My father’s widow.The phrase sat in my gut like battery acid, corroding everything.By dusk I was back in my room, lights off, sprawled on the bed in nothing but boxers, trying to jerk off to porn on my phone — anything faceless, anything safe. My cock stayed half-hard, uninterested, because every time I
Chapter 1 Eve’s POVThe house was too quiet after the funeral, the kind of silence that presses against your eardrums and makes every heartbeat sound obscene.I sat on the edge of the king-sized bed in the dark, still wearing the black crepe dress that clung to my skin like damp sin. It smelled of funeral lilies, cheap incense, and the sour regret that had settled permanently in my throat. Michael’s side of the mattress stayed cold, the indentation of his head still visible on the pillow like a ghost refusing to leave. I stared at it until my eyes burned.If only I hadn’t been drunk that day.The fight replayed in vicious loops. Three glasses of pinot at lunch, two more when he came home early smelling faintly of her perfume. I’d screamed about the late nights, the deleted messages, the way he’d started locking his phone. He’d shouted back that I was paranoid, controlling, drunk. Then he’d stormed out into the rain-slick canyon road. Twenty minutes later two uniformed officers stood
Chapter 2: They ended up at Alison’s hotel room which was a neutral ground, and safer than lingering in the wreckage of the reception hall. The drive was quiet, hands clasped over the center console, neither speaking much. When they arrived, they showered separately; the temptation of shared water felt too dangerous, too soon after the frenzy they’d unleashed.Clean, wrapped in hotel robes, they sat on opposite ends of the king bed. Reese tucked her knees up, dark hair still damp. Alison leaned against the headboard, legs stretched out.“That was insane,” Reese said finally.“Yep.”“We had sex on a buffet table at our abusive ex’s funeral.”“We did.”“While talking about him.”“Technically insulting him.” Alison met her eyes. “Do you regret it?”Reese considered, then shook her head. “No. It felt… necessary. Like exorcism.”“That’s one word for it.”Silence settled again, softer this time. Then Reese asked the question they’d both been circling: “What was real? What we had in college
Chapter 1: The funeral was small, and tasteful, the kind of polished lie Lewis Hall’s family would stage. Alison Graves stood at the back of the chapel, black coat buttoned to her throat, watching mourners pass the closed casket. Cold satisfaction settled in her chest. He was finally gone.She’d driven eight hours from Boston uninvited. She needed to see the box lowered, needed proof the monster couldn’t crawl back.Then she saw her.Across the aisle, black sheath dress, dark hair cropped short, stood Reese Dawson. Their eyes locked. Reese’s widened in shock, then narrowed — anger, grief, recognition. She looked away first, jaw tight.The eulogy erased everything: Lewis the devoted son, brilliant consultant, taken too soon by a heart attack. No mention of rage fits, gaslighting, the way he’d isolated both women from everyone during the years he claimed them separately.Alison’s nails bit into her palms. She’d come to confirm death; hearing him sainted made her want to scream every tr
Chapter 5: Daniel’s twenty-fifth birthday fell on a humid Friday night in late spring. The house was theirs alone since their parents were still on that endless cruise extension. He’d told Sophia three days earlier, voice low over breakfast: “Ava knows everything. Every detail. And she wants in.”Sophia’s fork had frozen mid-air. Ava, the tall, blonde, effortlessly dominant, the girlfriend Daniel had been seeing for six months, wasn’t shocked, wasn’t jealous. She was curious. Hungry. She wanted to see, to touch, to claim.At 9:03 p.m. the doorbell chimed once. Daniel opened it to find Ava standing on the porch in a black trench coat cinched tight at the waist, red heels, and nothing else. Her blue eyes flicked past him to Sophia waiting in the hallway, then back.“Happy birthday, baby,” she purred, stepping inside. She kissed Daniel first then turned to Sophia without hesitation. One manicured hand cupped the back of Sophia’s neck, pulling her close. Their mouths met slow and filthy:
Chapter 4: Two weeks later the house felt too small, too safe. The thrill of locked doors and drawn curtains had started to dull at the edges; they craved sharper risk. After midnight, Daniel drove them to the city park on the edge of town, the one with the winding paths, the shadowed lots, the occasional late-night wanderer. The main parking area was mostly empty, but three cars dotted the far end: a dog walker’s SUV, a couple’s sedan, teenagers probably fogging their own windows.He chose the darkest corner, backing into a spot half-hidden by overgrown bushes and a broken streetlight. Engine off. Windows cracked just enough for sound to carry.Sophia had dressed for sin: tiny black pleated skirt that barely skimmed mid-thigh, cropped hoodie unzipped to show the lace edge of her bra, no panties, no bra underneath the thin fabric. Her nipples were already stiff from the cool night air and anticipation, pressing visibly against the cotton.Daniel reclined the driver’s seat as far as i
◆◆◆ Chapter 1 ◆◆◆The heavy iron door groaned open, and Melinda was dragged into the dimly lit underground hall like a lamb to slaughter. Her wrists were bound behind her back with rough rope that bit cruelly into her skin, the coarse fibers scraping with every futile twist. The man gripping her up
◆◆◆ Chapter 1 ◆◆◆~ Anne McGiver ~Being a celebrity actress sucked about as much as being doused in perfume and left in a room with a swarm of bees. And those bees? They were men.I had them in every caliber imaginable — movie producers with their slimy promises of “private meetings,” co-stars w
◆◆◆ Chapter 2 ◆◆◆ The moment the elderly couple’s feet touched the pavement and the doors hissed shut, the atmosphere inside the bus changed. Thicker. Hungrier. The engine’s growl felt louder now, more conspiratorial, drowning out everything except the wet sounds their bodies were already making.
◆◆◆ Chapter 2 ◆◆◆~ Anne McGiver ~The rest of the class was torture.I was barely registering a single word about cellular respiration or ATP. It was torture because every time I tried to catch Mr. Romans’s eye, he deliberately looked anywhere else. At his slides. At the students raising hands. At







