The champagne burned sweeter than it should’ve.
I tipped the glass back anyway, letting it wash over the taste of the lie on my lips and the ache in my chest. I wasn’t supposed to be here. Not in this club. Not in this dress. And definitely not in his world.
But the thing about wanting to forget, you’ll do anything to lose yourself.
Tonight , I needed to forget.
Forget who I was. Forget who I belonged to. Forget the name of the man I’d been promised to marry.The club pulsed around me, dark and dripping with desire. Bodies pressed, moaned, moved. I needed air. Space. Anything but this suffocating cage of glitter and heat.
I wandered down a hallway that was quieter, less crowded. Red velvet walls. Gilded doors. A hallway that whispered secrets with every step I took. My heels echoed until I found a door that was half-open, light spilling out like temptation.
I didn’t knock. I just stepped inside.
He was there.
Alone.
Leaning back in a black leather armchair like he owned the air around him. A glass of something dark in his hand. His shirt half-open, revealing a chest inked in black lines and sharp sin. His tie undone, hair tousled, jaw shadowed with stubble.
I stopped breathing. He was a fine man, my eyes are blurry but I know he is a fine man.
My heart stuttered. I shouldn’t be here. I’m engaged, somebody wife to be.
He looked up at me through half-lidded eyes, slow and lazy like a lion toying with its prey. His gaze dragged across my body in a way that made my thighs clench.
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
His voice was smoke and gravel. Laced with something dangerous.
“I…I got lost,” I whispered. My voice was breathless, thin. “Thought this was the bathroom.”
His lips quirked. Not a smile. Just amusement. Dark and unreadable.
“You always walk into strange men’s rooms wearing dresses like that?”
I glanced down.
The dress clung to me like it was painted on. Barely-there silk. No bra. No shame.
Blame the champagne.
Blame the fucking engagement I had no say about.
Blame him for looking at me like I was something he’d already imagined on his tongue.
“Didn’t mean to interrupt.” I took a step back, but the door clicked shut behind me.
“You didn’t.” He took a long sip from his glass. “Unless you’re planning on running. In that case…”
His eyes darkened.
“…don’t.”
I didn’t move.
Something electric snapped between us. Sharp. Wild. Forbidden.
“You’re drunk,” I said, my voice shaking.
“So are you.”
And it was true. I could feel it in my blood. Warm. Heavy. Reckless.
He set his glass down with a thud and stood.
My breath caught.
He was taller than I remembered.
Wider. Meaner.
“Come here,” he said.
I didn’t think. I just obeyed.
Step by step until there was no air between us. Just heat. Just breath. Just danger.
His hand lifted to my jaw. Fingers rough. Thumb brushing my lower lip.
“You looked delicious,” he murmured. “You know that, right?”
“Yes,” I whispered. I should have left at that moment. But I told myself there is nothing wrong with one last night of fling. A good sex where you can be bad as you want.
His thumb slid into my mouth.
I sucked on it.
Something snapped in his eyes.
He grabbed the back of my neck and kissed me.
Not soft.
Not sweet.
Claiming.
His tongue slid into my mouth like he already owned it. His other hand gripped my waist, pulled me against the hard length of him, made me feel everything.
I moaned.
He groaned.
I was pressed against the wall in seconds, his thigh between mine, rubbing against my heat through the soaked fabric of my panties.
His mouth tore from mine. “Say you want this.”
“I do.”
“I am going to fuck you here without mercy.”
“I know.” My voice broke. “I don’t care.”
His hand slipped under my dress, fingers finding the lace that was barely hiding how wet I was for him.
“F**k,” he hissed. “You’re soaked.”
I bit my lip. “Do something about it.”
That’s all it took.
He dropped to his knees like a man starved. Hooked his fingers into my panties and yanked them down. My leg lifted to his shoulder without a word, and then his mouth…
Oh God.
His tongue licked up my slit like it was something sacred. And then he sucked,sucked, on my clit until I saw stars.
I cried out, moaning so bad, so loud with a care in the world. My hands tangled in his hair. My hips bucked into his face shamelessly.
“That’s it,” he murmured into me. “Ride it, baby. Use me.”
I came. Hard. Shaking against the wall, his hands digging into my thighs like he couldn’t get enough.
But he wasn’t done.
He stood, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then unbuckled his belt.
“I’m going to f**k you now,” he said.
And he did.
Bent me over the couch like I was something to ruin. Slid into me with one long, hard thrust that knocked the breath from my lungs. He was so big that I could feel every inches of him filling me.
“You feel like fucking heaven,” he growled into my ear. “So tight. So wet. So…Goddamn…perfect.”
My nails dug into the leather. I was lost in him. In the sound of skin slapping skin. In the dirty words he fed into my ear. In the way his fingers curled into my hips like he never wanted to let go.
And just when I thought I couldn’t take another second, he pulled out, turned me around, and pushed back in deeper.
I kissed him like I hated him.
He kissed me like he wanted to destroy me.
We came together. Loud. Messy. Real. Screaming like a slut.
His body collapsed against mine, breathless. His fingers still gripped my thighs like he couldn’t let go. I felt raw. Split wide open.
But then, A knock. No, a voice.
“Mr. Wolfe, your car’s waiting. Your mother said the Lancaster family is expecting you at the engagement dinner.”
My blood turned to ice. I turned my head, heart pounding.
Killian eyes opened slowly. Watched the horror creep across my face.
“What did they say?” I whispered.
“Why are you looking that way?”
I shoved at his chest. “What the hell did they say?”
He pulled out of me slowly. Too slowly.
I pushed at his chest, breath catching. “Did they just say… the Lancaster family?”
He blinked. Confused. “Yeah. Why?”
I sat up, my legs trembling. “I’m Ivy Lancaster.”
His eyes widened. All the heat vanished from his face.
“You’re…” His voice trailed off.
He stood up too fast, reaching for his pants like it would somehow undo what just happened. “Victor’s fiancée?”
I nodded, choking on the word. “And you’re…”
He swallowed hard. “Killian Wolfe. His older brother.”
Silence.
The air turned cold.
My stomach twisted.
I drove home with the windows down, letting the night air cut through the stench of gunpowder and the faint copper of blood that still clung to me. My knuckles ached from the fight. My jaw was tight, teeth grinding with every mile. Silas’s voice still echoed in my head, the way he’d said Robert’s name, the way he’d talked about my father like he was nothing but dirt in the ground.I wanted to punch the steering wheel. I wanted to turn the car around and make him die all over again.By the time I reached my building, the world felt quieter. Not calm, never calm, but muted, like everything was underwater. I parked, took the service elevator straight up, and keyed in the security codes without thinking.Inside, I stripped down before the door had even shut behind me. My clothes went into a black trash bag. Not the laundry. Not ever again.The shower was hot enough to scald, but I needed it. Steam swallowed the bathroom, and I stood there with my head bowed, water pounding down over my s
His body was still warm when I stood over it.Silas Hayes lay sprawled on the floor, the pistol I’d ripped from him just minutes ago lying a few feet away. My own breathing was sharp and uneven, the air thick with the stench of gunpowder. My hands weren’t trembling, not exactly, they just hadn’t decided whether to stay clenched or open.I’d killed him.And now I had a problem.The clock had started the moment his eyes rolled back. Every second I stayed here, the odds got worse. But walking out now, leaving things as they were, would be suicide. I’d as good as written my name on the walls in my own blood.I forced my lungs to slow down. Focus.First rule: don’t think about the body. Not yet. Think about the room. Think about what they’ll see when they get here.I pulled a pair of thin leather gloves from my pocket, ones I’d kept in case the night turned dirty, and slipped them on. I crouched beside Silas. The smell of him was different now, sweat, gunpowder, that copper tang of blood
The neighborhood was quiet, the sun dipping low behind cracked rooftops and faded fences. The kind of place where hope came to die a slow, gray death. I parked the car a few blocks away and crept forward, eyes sharp, heart steady but burning with cold rage.Silas Hayes’ house sat at the end of a narrow street, a ramshackle relic squeezed between newer, better kept homes. The windows were dust covered and cracked. The paint peeled like dead skin. A rusted gate hung from one hinge. No flowers. No laughter. Just shadows.I studied it from the street. This was the kind of place where promises went to rot. Where secrets got buried under layers of neglect.I stepped closer, boots crunching on broken glass and dry leaves. The door was cracked, just a sliver open, like a wound waiting for me to enter.Inside, the air was thick with dust and stale smoke. The faintest scent of decay clung to the walls. I moved carefully, stepping over torn newspapers, broken chairs, and empty bottles. The silen
The car’s engine was a low hum beneath the quiet of the street, the soft dusk settling like a shroud over the neat houses lined with trimmed lawns and flowering shrubs. I sat behind the wheel, the leather cool under my fingers, eyes fixed on the modest house across the street, white picket fence, flower boxes under the windows, a small porch swing where a child’s jacket hung limp.Marisol Vega’s home.I had read everything I could find about her. The old files painted a stark, ruthless picture, a woman who once moved in the shadows of Robert’s empire, involved in whispers I couldn’t yet confirm, someone who might have played a part in the erasure of my father’s name. But here, under this softening light, the woman I saw was different.Through the large living room window, I watched her move with easy grace, carrying a toddler in one arm, laughing as she handed a plate of food to another child at the table. Her hair was pulled back in a loose bun, the wrinkles near her eyes softened b
The ride from the station to the safehouse was quiet, the kind of quiet that presses against your eardrums until it feels like a weight. I didn’t bother turning on the radio. The city outside the tinted glass was all smudged lights and thin, restless fog. It didn’t matter. My mind wasn’t here.The moment the car stopped, I stepped out, my boots crunching against the gravel drive. The safehouse looked exactly as I’d left it, plain, shadowed, forgettable. The kind of building no one would remember passing. That was the point. I had bought this building in a different name. I punched in the code, pushed the heavy door open, and was met with stale air. The place always smelled like paper and metal, old documents, gun oil, cold steel.Inside, I didn’t take off my coat. I went straight to the desk. The only light came from the desk lamp, a harsh yellow pool that barely reached the corners of the room. My laptop sat there, waiting.I switched it on, the familiar hum filling the air. While i
The morning came too early.I lay there, eyes still closed, not wanting to leave the one small pocket of safety I’d found, the space between sleep and waking, where the walls around me didn’t exist yet.But the knock shattered it.It wasn’t Victor’s knock. No… he never knock,just walked in always. This knock was softer, hesitant, followed by the rustle of fabric and the creak of the door opening just far enough for someone to slip inside.I pushed myself up, the blanket falling to my lap.A young servant, a girl I’d seen before but never heard speak, came in carrying something that seemed out of place here. A tall, glass vase overflowing with blooms.White roses. Deep crimson peonies. Sprigs of eucalyptus.They looked like they belonged on a wedding table. Or in a lover’s arms.She crossed the room quickly, set the vase on my desk, and without meeting my eyes, left. No explanation. No note. Just the scent, already unfurling into the air, filling every corner of my room.I sat there f