เข้าสู่ระบบJUNE'S POVWe parked at the store. My legs felt unsteady when I stood. "Need to clean up," I murmured, my voice rough. He followed me without a word, through the busy aisles to the family restroom at the back. Single door, locked. The bolt clicked shut. And then I couldn't wait anymore.I pushed him back against the sink, hands fisting his shirt, kissing him hard, tasting coffee and the faint salt of myself on his tongue. He made a low sound, hands grabbing my ass to hoist me onto the counter. Bottles clattered to the floor, soap spilling sharp and clean in the air. My skirt rode up around my waist. I didn't care.My fingers shook as I undid his belt, pulled him free. He was hard and hot in my hand, the skin smooth over that rigid length, already slick at the tip. I stroked him once, slow, spreading the wetness down, feeling him pulse under my palm."June," he said, warning in his voice, strained."I need you inside me," I whispered against his lips. "Need to feel you open me up, all
JUNE’S POVThe words I had overheard through that cracked office door did not just wound me. They burned away every last bit of restraint I had been holding onto, like something inside me finally snapped free. Karen. Another number. Give me until the weekend.I had been carrying my own mistake like this heavy thing right under my ribs for days, convinced I was the one who had shattered whatever was left of us. But Franklin had been splitting himself in two long before Luca ever kissed me, before I let it happen.I still remember how he cried and pleaded, begging to be given another chance and how he promised to fire Karen the next day but all of it was a lie.All that guilt I had been nursing did not fade away bit by bit. It just vanished, gone in a heartbeat, and what rushed in was this raw, urgent hunger, the kind that felt like surfacing after holding my breath for years.I stopped sleeping in the guest room to punish myself. Now I chose it because I needed space from him, from Fra
LUCA'S POVThe next few days settled into a new, brittle rhythm. Franklin left early for work, a permanent crease of distracted irritation between his brows. June moved through the house with a purposeful quiet, sleeping in the blue room, speaking to Franklin only when it was necessary. Their conversations were logistical, a co-parenting dialogue about bills or schedules. The chill between them was a physical presence, a third occupant in every room.Adrian felt it. He’d give me these sidelong looks over breakfast, his brow furrowed. “You think they’re okay?” he’d mutter under the sound of the morning news. “They’re just… weird.”“Parents are weird, man,” I’d shrug, my voice carefully light. “They have their own stuff.” It was the truest lie I’d ever told him.June and I existed in a series of charged, mundane moments. A shared glance as we both reached for the same coffee mug in the morning. Her asking, “Will you be home for dinner?” as I headed out the door, a question that was a co
LUCA’S POVI crossed the few steps to the bed quietly and knelt down beside her. Close now. Close enough to catch her scent, that warm mix of her skin and the faint strawberry from her shampoo. Close enough to see her fingers gripping the edge of the quilt, knuckles tight."Hey," I whispered, so soft it was almost nothing.She exhaled a shaky breath and turned toward me. Her eyes were open, catching the dim light, glistening a bit. No shock there. Just something like relief washing over her face. Or maybe need."I couldn't stay away," I said. It sounded simple, maybe even dumb, but it was all I had."I know," she murmured, her voice rough, like she hadn't slept either. "I was hoping you wouldn't."I reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She leaned into my touch right away, pressing her cheek against my palm. That small thing hit me hard, like she'd been holding out for it.I leaned in closer, lips near her ear. "I'm not taking you tonight. Not like that."She w
LUCA’S POVThe silence from my phone felt louder than any reply could have been. I just stared at the screen, watching it go dark, her words left burning in the gloom.“I’m in the blue guest room.”It wasn’t a text. It was a grenade with the pin already pulled. A simple statement of fact that changed the entire geography of the house, of this whole screwed-up situation. She wasn’t in her room with him. She was down the hall, alone, in that stiff little room that always smelled like old potpourri and regret.And she had told me.I sat on the edge of my bed and listened to the springs creak under my weight. My first instinct was pure, stupid impulse: to get up, to walk the twenty steps down the hall, to see if her door was unlocked.But that’s what got us here, wasn’t it? Impulse. Reacting without thinking. I had already played the jealous fool with Chloe, and look where that landed us. We were in a deeper, messier trench than before. I couldn’t do that to her again. Not tonight.Frankl
JUNE'S POVNow, I had nothing to feel guilty about. The cage door wasn’t just opening. I was realizing I’d never been the one locked in it. He was. In his lies, his secrets, his pathetic, repeating patterns.And I was free.The shower ran forever. Long enough for that icy clarity to harden into something permanent. I just stood at the kitchen window, watching the reflection of the empty plate, the chair. A crime scene of everyday life.The water shut off. Footsteps moved in our room. The thought felt ancient. It was his room. A museum I was tired of visiting.He came back down in sweats, his hair damp. “You sure you’re okay? You’re quiet.”I turned. “I’m sure.” I looked him over, not like a wife would do her husband, but like a coroner. “How was Chicago, really?”He shrugged, grabbing a bottle water from the fridge. “Like I said. Fine. Endless meetings with clients negotiating new terms and contracts. You know the drill.”“I do,” I said, calm as anything. “I know the drill very well,







