PROLOGUE

Bella's Pov~

My marriage was running on autopilot.

Wake up. Eat. Scroll online. Walk the dog. Sleep. Repeat.

I took a deep breath, fixed my hair, and walked toward the door.

And then I saw him.

Jack.

My cheap sister had made him come over because this place was closer to his university, especially now that my husband was away for business shit as usual 

Except this wasn’t the Jack I remembered.

A grown man stood on my doorway.

Tall. Broad shoulders. Muscles filling out his shirt like it was tailored around him. A trimmed goatee. A strong jawline. Eyes darker, deeper  like they carried stories he hadn’t told yet. His presence filled the space before he even spoke.

“Aunty Bella…” 

he said, his voice deeper, thicker, warmer. The kind that vibrated low in your chest.

My breath caught.

For a moment, I forgot how to speak.

This couldn’t be the boy who used to run around leaving Lego blocks everywhere. This wasn’t the child who clung to his mother’s dress at gatherings.

This was a man.

A very handsome man.

“Hey, Jack…” I finally managed. “Wow. You’ve grown. You look… mature.”

Understatement of the year.

He stepped forward and hugged me lightly from the side.

My body stiffened  not from discomfort, but from the shock of physical contact I hadn’t felt in too long. He smelled warm, clean, and manly. Something like leather and soap.

“Thank you for letting me stay, Aunty,” he said softly. “I was scared to ask.”

“Scared? Why would you be scared?” I forced a smile. “I don’t bite.”

Not the best choice of words.

His smile was slow, grateful… almost shy. 

“I just really appreciate it.”

I nodded quickly, stepping back.

“Drop your bags here. The butlers will take them.”

“My room?”

he asked, eyes bright.

“Yes. Your room.”

Another lie. I hadn’t prepared anything but the moment I saw him standing there, something inside me shifted.

I rode the elevator down, gave the butler fast instructions, and returned to the living room where Jack stood, hands on the couch, eyes roaming the house with awe.

His scent had already spread into the air, warm and masculine.

Something about it made my stomach tighten… something deep and unfamiliar stirring.

“So…” I said, crossing my legs subconsciously as I sat. “What’s your major?”

He talked. I nodded. But my mind wasn’t following the words, it followed the movement of his lips, the curve of his throat, the way his voice settled low.

I was losing it.

“You can stay here as long as you want,” I said before thinking.

He looked stunned. And I'm grateful. And something else I couldn’t place.

“Thank you… Bella,” he said softly.

Not Aunty.

Bella.

It was ridiculous, but that tiny shift made my heart skip.

We talked until the chef brought dinner. We ate. We laughed. He blushed a few times, and I pretended not to notice.

When he finally went to bed, closing his door gently behind him, I leaned against mine and exhaled.

What was happening to me?

I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, remembering the shape of his shoulders under his shirt… the hint of abs even through the fabric… the quiet strength in the way he carried himself.

I closed my eyes.

This was dangerous. Stupid. Forbidden.

But for the first time in a long, lonely stretch of my life…

…I felt something.

Something warm and alive.

Something I wasn’t sure I could stop.

Jack's Pov~

I stood in the guest bathroom staring at myself in the mirror, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened to me.

I wasn’t even five hours into this house, and my head was a mess.

Bella  Aunt Bella  wasn’t the woman I remembered from childhood. She wasn’t the scattered, soft-voiced mom figure who baked too many cookies at family gatherings and hugged everyone too long.

She was… different now.

Older, yes.

But stronger.

Sharper.

More… feminine. Everywhere. In her posture, in her eyes, in the way she carried herself like she’d lived several lives since I last saw her.

And God, she looked good.

Too good.

I let the shower run, steam building around me, trying to cool the heat that kept crawling up my chest.

The image of her at the door replayed over and over again  that surprised the lift of her eyebrows, the way her lips parted for a second, the way her eyes dragged down my body before she caught herself.

She noticed me.

That alone did things to my stomach I didn’t want to describe.

“Get it together,”

I whispered, noticing that my meat had begun to rise just by the thoughts of her.

This was my aunt.

My mother’s older sister.

A married woman.

Even if her husband never seemed to be around.

Even if her eyes lingered a little too long on me when we talked.

Even if her voice softened every time she said my name.

I squeezed my eyes shut, breathing slowly, trying to unclench the tightness rolling through my body, I unzipped my shorts and beat my dick hard,

‘ She is your aunt for Christ's sake’

A voice said in my head, as if trying to warm me, that my thoughts were that dangerous

I needed to focus on school, on work, on anything except the way Bella smelled when she hugged me warm, soft, expensive, womanly.

I stepped into the shower and let the warm water run over my head, trying to clear my thoughts. But the more I tried not to think about her, the more I did.

The way she said, You can stay here as long as you want, Jack.

The way her gaze searched my face before sliding away like she was scared to get caught staring.

The way her laugh sounded softer now, almost sad underneath the brightness.

She missed intimacy.

Anyone could see that.

And I… I shouldn’t even care.

I had a girlfriend.

Or something like a girlfriend.

Helen had been distant for months now, choosing indifference over affection. When I got out of the shower and checked my phone, 

I tossed the phone on the bed and sat down, staring at the wall, feeling something heavy clog up my chest. I didn’t want to admit it, but it felt like I’d been in a one-sided relationship for a long time now.

Maybe that was why being in Bella’s house felt so… intense.

She saw me.

Really saw me.

With warmth, with attention, with something that felt dangerously close to affection.

I rubbed my hands over my face and lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling fan turning slowly.

“Don’t go there,” I whispered to myself. “Don’t even start.”

But it was hard not to.

After a while, I picked up my phone again, needing distraction. A few memes, a couple of stupid videos, anything to keep my mind from drifting to the sound of Bella’s voice downstairs.

Then the screen lit up.

A message…from the one woman I couldn’t stop thinking about 

Bella: “Are you asleep?”

My heart flipped, stupidly, loudly.

I typed back.

Me: “Not yet.”

There was a small pause, then:

Bella: “Just checking on you. The first day can be overwhelming.”

Overwhelming wasn’t the word.

Overwhelming was safe.

This… whatever this was… felt like something else entirely.

Me: “I’m good. And thanks again, Bella.”

Another pause.

Bella: “Goodnight, Jack.”

I stared at her message longer than I should have.

Before I could stop myself, I typed:

Me: “Goodnight, Bella.”

Not Aunty.

Just… her name.

I placed the phone down and exhaled, my whole body buzzing with a frustration I couldn’t shake off. It wasn’t desire, exactly  or maybe it was  but it was tangled with confusion, with guilt, with curiosity, with a strange pull toward something I had no business wanting.

I lay there in the dark, the quiet of the house wrapping around me. This place was huge, silent, almost too perfect  like a museum where nothing moved unless Bella walked through it.

And tomorrow, I’d see her again.

Her smile.

Her walk.

Her softness.

Something inside me tightened.

I ran a hand over my face, whispering to the ceiling like a confession:

“Please don’t let me mess this up.”

Because deep down, in the part of me I didn’t want to admit existed, I already knew the truth:

If Bella kept looking at me the way she did…

If she kept talking to me in that soft, tired, warm voice…

…I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pretend I didn’t feel it.

Her presence.

Her attention.

Her loneliness.

And the heat underneath all of it.

A heat that matched mine, whether either of us wanted to say it out loud.

I closed my eyes, drowning in it  in the forbidden ache, in the pressure building beneath my ribs, in the pull neither of us asked for.

This was only the beginning.

And I could already tell…

It was going to get complicated.