LOGINIris’s POV
I woke up with a jolt. The dream had been hazy but vivid enough to leave me throbbing. There were dark eyes watching me, a low magnetic voice murmuring praise against my throat and strong hands sliding up my thighs with slow deliberate purpose. I had arched into the touch in the dream desperately and now the echo of it lingered in every pulse of my clit. I turned my head to see Marcus was still asleep, one arm flung across my waist and his face half buried in the pillow. His breathing was deep and even, the way it always was on mornings when the world let him rest. With Victor back in the city running the empire, Marcus could afford to slack. No five thirty alarms, no urgent emails and no reason to leave this bed for hours. I shifted closer, pressing my breasts against his back, letting my thigh slide between his. He stirred, made a sleepy rumbling sound and rolled toward me without opening his eyes. “Morning,” he mumbled, voice thick with sleep. “Morning,” I whispered. He cracked one eye open and gave me that lazy boyish smile that made the ache pulse harder. I leaned in to kiss him first. The kiss started gently but something inside me was restless and hungry. I deepened it, slipping my tongue past his in a desperate attempt at quelling the heat inside of me. My hand slid under his T-shirt, fingers tracing the warm skin of his stomach, then higher, over the flat plane of his chest. He groaned low in his throat, the sound vibrating against my mouth and traveling straight down my spine. His hand found my hip and pulled me closer. I rocked against him instinctively, feeling him harden through his boxers. The thick ridge pressed right against my center, separated only by thin fabric, and the contact sent a sharp bright spark through me. I whimpered involuntarily and we were both surprised at the sound coming from my own throat. I shamelessly kissed him harder. Marcus pulled back just enough to look at me. His pupils were blown wide, breath coming in short pants. “Iris…” His voice was rough, questioning, but already thick with want. “You’re… different this morning.” I didn’t answer with words. I just kissed him again, straddling his hips and settling my weight so the hard length of him nestled perfectly against my folds. I rocked him slowly, grinding down in small circles that made my clit throb with every pass. He groaned louder, hands gripping my thighs, fingers digging into the soft flesh hard enough to leave faint marks. “Fuck, babe,” he rasped. “You’re killing me.” I rocked harder, chasing the intoxicating friction. My body was screaming yes, wet and open and ready, and for a moment I let myself imagine it. I imagined letting Marcus push my shorts aside before giving me a well deserved pounding to see if this fire Victor had awakened could be quenched by the man I had promised my first time to. Marcus’s hand slipped under my tank top to cupping my breast, his thumb circled my nipple in slow firm strokes. I arched into his touch, a soft moan slipping out before I could catch it. He flipped us in one smooth motion, settling between my legs and kissing down my neck while his hips rolled against mine in long deliberate thrusts. The head of his cock nudged my entrance through the damp cotton of my shorts, teasing without entering, and I lifted my hips to meet him, desperate for more pressure. We were in a precarious situation. My virginity was a thin fabric away from being gone. The fabric in question was soaked with my juices, clinging shamelessly to my labia folds. It was barely a barrier, one small shift and he would be inside me, one whispered yes and the promise I had held onto for years would be gone. His mouth found mine again hungrily . His tongue stroked mine in the same rhythm his hips used. My hands fisted in his hair, pulling him closer, legs wrapped around his waist to lock him against me. Every grind sent fresh wetness flooding between us. My clit was swollen, throbbing with every pass of his length, and I could feel myself fluttering, clenching around nothing, begging to be filled. Marcus groaned against my lips. “Iris… God, you feel so good. So wet.” His hand slid down, fingers slipping under the waistband of my shorts, brushing the slick folds. I gasped, hips jerking up into his touch. He circled my clit slowly and pleasure spiked sharp and bright behind my eyes. I was trembling with need. I have never been this horny and ready to lose my V card. ThenI was saved by his phone buzzing loudly and incessantly on the nightstand. It was the ringtone he used for his father. He froze, forehead dropping to my shoulder. “Shit.” I exhaled shakily, body still humming and humping to push my pulsing clit against his fingers. “Ignore it.” “I want to.” He kissed my collarbone, voice rough with frustration. “God, I really want to.” He kissed me once more, deep and lingering, then pulled back with visible effort. “But if I don’t answer, Dad will hear about it and give me that look.” The mention of Victor landed like ice water on fevered skin. I went still. Marcus didn’t notice. He rolled off me, grabbed the phone, and answered with a sleepy “Yeah, what’s up?” I lay there, chest rising and falling too fast, staring at the ceiling while he talked in low tones about some contract clause that needed his signature by noon. My skin was flushed, my nipples we're aching, my core was still slick and disappointingly empty. The ache hadn’t eased. It had turned needy and insistent, like my body was protesting the interruption. When he hung up, he turned back to me with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, crisis averted. Where were we?” I forced a small laugh, trying to sound light. “Breakfast?” He grinned. “Deal. I’ll order from that place you like. French toast, bacon wrapped dates, extra syrup. Doorstep delivery. We’re not getting out of this bed for at least another hour.” He leaned down, kissed me softly then, grabbed his phone to place the order. I watched him hungrily as he moved, this handsome specimen of a man was all mine and I loved him deeply. But the ache between my legs hadn’t faded, it had grown more demanding. And a quiet, honest part of me wondered if letting Marcus inside me right now would finally quiet it. If sliding him deep, feeling him stretch me for the first time, would wash away memory of Victor’s touch and the forbidden way my body had answered it without permission. Or if it would only make the contrast unbearable. Marcus set the phone down and pulled me close again, tucking me against his chest. “Food will be delivered in twenty minutes. Do you want to stay like this till then?” I nodded against his skin, breathing him in but my mind was already drifting and wondering. What if the ache wasn’t something to be quenched? What if it was something that needed to be fed? The doorbell buzzed twenty minutes later. Marcus groaned dramatically,rolled out of bed, and padded to the door in his boxers. I stayed under the covers, heart still racing, thighs still slick, clit still swollen and sensitive. I pressed my palm between my legs for a moment, just enough pressure to make me bite my lip, then pulled my hand away. The ache didn’t care about breakfast. It didn’t care about promises. It only cared about being filled. And deep down, the part of me that wrote all those desperate, forbidden scenes already knew the truth: No amount of French toast was going to satisfy the hunger Victor had woken. Marcus came back with the bags, set them on the bed, and climbed in beside me again. He kissed my temple, handed me a fork, and smiled like the world was still simple. I smiled back. But when I took the first bite, sweet syrup coating my tongue, all I could think about was how much sweeter it would taste if Victor’s voice was the one murmuring “good girl” while I came apart on his fingers. I swallowed hard. And wondered how long I could keep pretending the fire in my veins had anything to do with the man beside me.Marcus’s POV She led me toward the display table, still talking, her words tumbling out in a rush. "Have you read any of her other books? She used to write these sweet little romances, the kind you'd take on a beach vacation and forget about by the time you got home. But this one? This one is completely unhinged in the best possible way. It's like she finally stopped caring what people would think and just went for it." "Sounds great," I managed. "It's more than great. It's iconic." She grabbed a copy from the top of the pyramid and pressed it into my hands. "The father-in-law character is unreal. He's so charismatic and intense that you completely understand why she can't resist him even though you're screaming at her to just walk away. Every time she tells herself she's done with him, he shows up and she loses all her brain cells. It's frustrating but also weir
Marcus's POVShe hung up before I could respond and I sat there with the phone in my hand and the book on my lap and the weight of everything pressing down on my chest until I could barely breathe. I needed to get out of this car. I needed to splash water on my face and look at myself in the mirror and figure out how I was going to drive across town to meet my wife's best friend without falling apart at the wheel.I shoved the book into the glove compartment and walked back toward the bookstore because it was the only place nearby with a public restroom and I wasn't in any shape to drive yet. The same bell chimed above the door and the same cat was still sleeping in the window, completely indifferent to the fact that my entire world had just collapsed in the parking lot outside.Chloe the cashier looked up when I walked in and her face shifted from recognition to concern. "Hey, you're back. Are you okay? You look kind of pale.""I'm
Marcus's POV The bell above the door chimed when I walked in, a soft jingle that felt entirely too cheerful for the way my stomach was knotting itself into something unrecognizable. The bookstore smelled like old paper and fresh coffee, the kind of smell that used to make Iris close her eyes and breathe deep like she was trying to memorize it. She loved places like this. She loved the creaky floors and the mismatched shelves and the way you could get lost in the stacks for hours without anyone bothering you. I had spent whole afternoons trailing behind her in shops just like this one, holding her purse while she pulled books off shelves and pressed them into my hands. Now I was here alone, looking for a book she didn't want me to read. The store was busier than I expected for a weekday afternoon. A few people browsing the fiction section, an elderly man in the history aisle squinting at a biography of some dead president, and a cluster of women near the front of the store gat
Marcus's POV The house had never felt this empty before Iris started leaving. I noticed it first about a month after the wedding, when she flew to New York for some publishing thing and I came home to a dark kitchen and a sink full of dishes I hadn't dirtied. The silence wasn't the peaceful kind, the kind that settles over a house after a long day when all you want is a cold drink and a quiet room. It was the heavy kind, the kind that made you listen for sounds that weren't there. Footsteps on the stairs. The hum of her laptop from the study. The way she used to talk to herself while she cooked, narrating her own recipes like she was hosting a cooking show for an audience of one. She had been gone three days this time, and the house had started to feel less like a home and more like a museum of our marriage. Her books on the shelves. Her half-finished cups of tea on the counters, left behind in her rush to catch another flight. Her perfume still lingering in the bedroom, fading a
Victor's POVThe photographer's name was Daniel Mercer, and he worked out of a rented studio above a coffee shop in Seattle's arts district. Margaret had the file on my desk within four hours of Iris forwarding me the number, and by the time I walked into that studio on a gray Wednesday afternoon, I knew more about the man than his own mother probably did. He is thirty-four years old, divorced and two years behind on his taxes. A portfolio full of celebrity candids and literary event coverage that paid the bills but never quite covered the rent. He was talented enough to get the shot but not smart enough to understand what he was holding when he got it.The studio was cluttered with equipment. Light stands and backdrops and a desk buried under contact sheets. Mercer was sitting at that desk when I walked in, his feet propped up on a stack of photography magazines, a cup of cold coffee at his elbow. He looked up when he heard the door, and the color drained from his face so fast I tho
Chapter 87Iris's POVI didn't sleep after I hung up with Victor. I lay on top of the covers still wearing my clothes from the night before, the photograph propped against the lamp on the nightstand where I couldn't escape it. Every time I closed my eyes I saw it again. My face caught in the morning light. The revolving door. The wrinkled dress that told the whole story without a single word.The blackmailer had given me twenty-four hours, and I had already burned through four of them doing nothing except staring at the ceiling and replaying every mistake that had led me to this moment. I had no idea how much money they wanted. I had no idea if they would actually go through with the threat. I had no idea if Victor was the solution to this problem or just another version of it wearing a different face.I kept thinking about Maya. About the way she looked at me in that coffee shop months ago, hollowed out and exhausted, telling me Victor had threatened to destroy her family if she didn
Victor’s POV She whispered my name again. Victor. I stayed frozen above her, my cock pressed right against her tight entrance. Every muscle in my body screamed to pull away. She was drugged. She was my son's fiancée. She was untouched. I had no right to take this from her, no right to be the on
Marcus’s POVSunday mornings used to be my favorite day.I would wake up to the smell of coffee brewing and the sound of Iris moving around the kitchen in her bare feet, humming softly under her breath. I would lie there for a few minutes, just listening, just letting the warmth of knowing she was
Iris’s POV I stared at Victor’s message for a full thirty seconds before I finally typed a response.We need to meet. It is urgent.The three dots appeared almost immediately, which told me he had been watching his phone, waiting for me to say something. I told myself that did not mean anything. I
Iris’s POVI kept my hand over his, my fingers laced with his, and I watched the city lights blur past the window in streaks of gold and red. I should have felt settled. The dinner was over. I had survived. But Victor's voice was still in my head, his words still pressed against my skin like finger







