LOGIN◆◆◆ Chapter 2 ◆◆◆I spent the day distracted, replaying last night. The way Garrett had touched me, looked at me, made me feel completely seen for the first time in my life. Every time I closed my eyes I felt his hands on my hips, his mouth on my throat, the way he’d whispered my name like it was something sacred when I came apart on his couch. I barely ate, barely spoke to my coach when he called to check in. My body still ached in the best way due to bruised ribs from the crash, yes, but also the deeper soreness between my thighs, the faint marks on my neck I’d covered with a high collar.At 8:00 p.m. sharp, I met him at the base gondola.The mountain at night was otherworldly silent, pale blue under moonlight, snow glowing like it had its own light. Garrett was waiting in civilian clothes: dark parka, jeans, no uniform, no authority. Just a man who looked at me like I was the only thing that existed.“You came,” he said.“Did you doubt I would?”“Little bit.” He gave a small, crook
◆◆◆ Chapter 1 ◆◆◆I woke up in the snow with no memory of how I got there.Bright Colorado sky overhead. Concerned faces around me. Kneeling beside me, checking my pupils with a penlight, was the most striking man I’d ever seen: silver hair despite looking late thirties, sharp features, ice-blue eyes that missed nothing.“Can you tell me your name?” His voice was calm, professional.“Clara. Clara Bennett.”“Good. I’m Garrett, head of ski patrol. Can you move your fingers and toes?”Everything worked. Miraculously. My snowboard lay twenty feet upslope, snapped in half.“What happened?”“You attempted a double cork 1080 on the Olympic training run. Lost your edge on landing, went down hard.” His hands checked joints, ribs, clinical, yet his touch warmed my skin through layers. “Lucky. Nothing broken. Mild concussion likely. We’re taking you down.”The Olympic training run. Right. Because I was Clara Bennett, nineteen-year-old snowboarding prodigy, favored to medal in next month’s qualif
◆◆◆ Chapter 5 ◆◆◆Three months later, Voltage was thriving. Our compromise approach, my atmosphere with his innovation, created something neither could have achieved alone. The LED accents glowed subtly along the edges of the dance floor, never overpowering the warm, intimate lighting I’d fought for. Kristov’s weekend sets packed the place, but Marcus’s residency nights still drew the loyal crowd who came for the vibe, not just the name. Profits were up twenty-three percent. The staff stopped flinching when we walked into a room together.And us? We were thriving too.“Move in with me,” Damien said one morning, watching me make coffee in his kitchen wearing nothing but one of his crisp white shirts, sleeves rolled to my elbows.I paused, spoon halfway to the French press. “That’s a big step.”“We already spend every night together. You have a drawer here. Your shampoo’s in my shower. Your books are on my nightstand.” He leaned against the island, arms crossed, looking unfairly good in
◆◆◆ Chapter 4 ◆◆◆ Opening night with Kristov was electric. The club pulsed like a living thing — bodies grinding under strobing lights, bass rattling ribs, cash flashing at bottle service tables. Voltage had never felt more alive.And Damien had his hand on the small of a blonde’s back.I watched from the VIP section, ice clinking in my glass, rage simmering low in my belly. We weren’t exclusive. We weren’t even dating. This was supposed to be just sex as stress relief with sharp edges. So why did the sight of his fingers splayed possessively against her black dress make me want to shove her over the railing?“That’s Svetlana,” our manager murmured beside me, topping off my champagne. “Kristov’s agent. Damien’s been negotiating with her all night.”Negotiating. Right. That’s why his mouth was close enough to her ear that her hair brushed his lips, why she tilted her head back and laughed at whatever filthy promise he was whispering.I downed the drink in one long swallow and turned a
◆◆◆ Chapter 3 ◆◆◆"Marcus is the best DJ in the city…""Marcus is your college friend who plays EDM from 2018!" Damien slammed his coffee down so hard the lid popped off, dark liquid pooling on the desk between us. "I'm hiring Kristov. He's got a European following, plays festivals…""He costs fifty thousand a night!""He brings in seventy thousand in bar sales!"We glared at each other across the Voltage office. The club was empty, mid-afternoon sun slanting through the high windows in dusty shafts, highlighting every particle of tension suspended between us. "You know what?" I stood, chair scraping back. "Fuck you and your expensive DJ.""Careful what you offer." His eyes darkened to near-black, pupils swallowing the irises. He leaned forward, elbows on the desk, voice dropping to that dangerous register that always made my stomach flip. "We're alone. Office doors lock."My pulse kicked hard against my throat. "We agreed to no sex at the club. Business and personal stay separate."
◆◆◆ Chapter 2 ◆◆◆"Over my dead body are you installing LED floors."Damien threw the renovation specs on the conference table with enough force that several pages fluttered to the floor. "It's what millennials want…""I AM a millennial! And nobody wants to feel like they're dancing on a goddamn video game!" I stood so fast my chair scraped back. I paced the length of the conference room, arms crossed tight. "Your obsession with 'innovation' is going to bankrupt us.""Your obsession with 'atmosphere' is going to bore us to death." He checked his watch, the face catching the overhead light. "We've been arguing for an hour. You know what that means."Heat flooded through me —liquid, immediate, humiliating in how predictable it had become. My thighs clenched on instinct."Your place or mine?" I asked, voice already lower."Yours. Mine's being renovated.""Of course it is."We fought all the way to my apartment.In the underground garage he crowded me against his car before I could even o
◆◆◆ Chapter 2 ◆◆◆The guard carried Melinda over his shoulder like a sack of prize meat, her bare breasts bouncing painfully against his back with every step. She kicked and screamed, but his arm clamped around her thighs like iron. Eventually they reached the underground garage, and he dumped her
◆◆◆ Chapter 4 ◆◆◆(Nora’s POV)Two months of letters and stolen afternoons and I’d stopped pretending this was temporary.Noah photographed me one afternoon, candid shots while I read in his studio, curled on the worn leather armchair with a volume of Adrienne Rich open on my lap. I was unaware unt
◆◆◆ Chapter 1 ◆◆◆The security footage was undeniable.There I was, Sloane Harper, junior data analyst at WillianTech Industries, using a cloned keycard to slip into the executive server room at 11:47 PM. Downloading seventeen classified files on proprietary AI learning models worth millions, to a
◆◆◆ Chapter 4 ◆◆◆After the anniversary night, things shifted. We still kept it casual and claimed it was just sex, just companionship, nothing serious. But Dante started staying over more often. Started keeping a toothbrush at my place. Started texting me random things during the day that had noth







