LOGINChapter 16 — Vespera’s POVTwo days passed before Thorne mentioned Cassian again. The bruises on my hip and thigh had darkened to deep purple, and the bite mark on my neck sat just above the collar where anyone could see it if they looked. He made no effort to hide them. Every morning he checked the marks with his fingers, pressing just hard enough to make me feel them again, and every time he did the same quiet possession settled over his face.On the third morning he told me to kneel in the usual place while he made a short call. I heard Cassian’s name. When he hung up he looked at me and said, “He is coming back this evening. This time he will stay and watch. You will not speak to him. You will not look at him unless I tell you to. You will only look at me while I use you. Do you understand?”I said yes. The word came out steady even though my stomach tightened.The hours until evening moved slowly. He kept me on my knees for long stretches, sometimes leaving me there while he work
Chapter 15 — Thorne’s POVThe elevator doors had barely closed behind Cassian when the last of my restraint snapped. The knowledge that another man had spent two hours looking at what belonged to me—naked, collared, thighs open, visibly affected by the exposure—settled into something dark and sharp behind my ribs, and the quiet satisfaction of having displayed her was already being overtaken by the sharper need to reclaim every inch he had seen. I looked down at Vespera still kneeling between my legs, lips parted, the flush of the orgasm I had just forced from her still coloring her cheeks, and the soft leather of the collar at her throat only fed the possessive hunger that had been building since the moment Cassian’s gaze first lingered.“Stand up.”She rose on unsteady legs. I did not give her time to find her balance. I turned her, bent her forward over the arm of the couch, and pushed her chest down until her cheek pressed against the leather, the position lifting her ass and lea
Chapter 14 — Vespera’s POVThe marks from the previous night’s spanking still carried a faint residual heat when morning light filled the penthouse, a quiet reminder that lingered every time I shifted on my knees or felt the soft brush of air against my skin. Thorne had reinforced the new rule before we slept, the requirement that I thank him after every orgasm already settling into the growing list of non-negotiable structures, and the memory of the words leaving my mouth while my body still trembled from the dual intensity of impact and release left a complicated weight in my chest that I could not fully examine.He woke me with the same calm authority as the day before, pointing to the rug without speaking, and I knelt while he dressed in a dark shirt and trousers that made the ordinary act of preparing for business feel like another layer of the protocol that now governed every hour. When he finally looked at me properly he rested two fingers under my chin and tilted my face upwa
Chapter 13 — Thorne’s POVI kept her against the glass for several long minutes after the last pulse of my release had faded, the cold surface at her back and the residual heat of her body against my chest creating a contrast that left her still trembling while the city continued its indifferent glitter beyond the window. When I finally stepped back I watched the slow trail of my cum slip down the inside of one thigh, the visible evidence of the public claiming settling something dark and satisfied behind my ribs. She remained where I had left her, breathing unevenly, the black collar stark against her throat and the flush of the two orgasms still coloring her skin.I did not take her to the bedroom immediately. Instead I guided her to the wide leather couch, sat, and drew her facedown across my lap so that her hips rested over my thighs and her upper body settled against the soft cushions. The position left her ass raised and available, the faint marks from earlier still visible on
Chapter 12 — Vespera’s POVNight had fully come by the time Thorne finally allowed me to straighten from the desk, the long hour of remaining bent and open with his cum slowly slipping down my thighs having left me restless and aching in a way that felt deliberately cultivated. He had taken two more calls while still buried inside me, his voice never once losing its calm professional edge even as his hips delivered the occasional deep, reminding thrust that forced me to bite back every sound. When he at last withdrew and told me I could stand, my legs were unsteady and the soft leather of the collar felt heavier than it had that morning.He did not lead me back to the bedroom. Instead he walked to the far side of the open living space where the floor-to-ceiling windows stretched unbroken across the entire wall, the glittering sprawl of the city spread out far below like a living map of lights and movement. He stopped only inches from the glass and looked at me over his shoulder, the
Chapter 11 — Vespera’s POVThe second full day of formal protocol began the moment I opened my eyes and found Thorne already dressed and standing at the foot of the bed, the quiet authority in his posture making it clear that every small freedom I had still clung to the day before was about to be stripped away. I sat up carefully, the collar shifting against my throat, and waited. He did not speak at first. He simply pointed to the rug, and I slid from the mattress to my knees with my thighs parted and my hands resting on my thighs, the position already beginning to feel less foreign than it had only twenty-four hours earlier.“From this moment until I say otherwise,” he said, voice calm and absolute, “you will ask permission for every single thing. You will ask before you stand, before you drink, before you eat, before you use the bathroom, before you speak anything that is not a direct answer to a question I have asked. If you forget, the consequence will be immediate and unpleasa
Harlow's POV I lay on the bed, chest heaving, mind completely empty. Kael had just been inside me. Every inch of him. And now his cum was dripping down my thigh and I could not think straight.He sat back on the mattress beside me. “Fuck.”I closed my eyes. Let the warmth spread through my body. T
Harlow's POV The vanilla and leather hit my nose the second I stepped through the black glass doors of Ember. Pittsburgh’s most exclusive BDSM club hummed around me, all red velvet and dim light and bodies pressed together in ways that made my cheeks burn. Half naked women twisted around silver po
Harlow's POV I woke up alone.The spot beside me on the bed was cold. No dent in the pillow. No lingering warmth. Kael had left sometime in the night, and I did not even remember him going.My throat was sore. My wrists ached where the rope had bitten into my skin. Between my legs, there was a dul
Harlow's POV Someone banged on the front door. I leaped up from the couch, heart pounding. Sage had left earlier, and she always forgot her keys. I wiped my face with the back of my hand and walked over to the door.“Do not tell me you forgot your keys again. You always do.”I pulled open the door







