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.Eve’s POVThe coffee shop was crowded for a Tuesday morning, filled with the low hum of conversation and the occasional hiss of the espresso machine. I had claimed a small table by the window and was nursing a latte that had gone cold twenty minutes ago, my laptop open in front of me and my fingers hovering over the keyboard.I had been writing for three hours straight. The words were pouring out of me in a way they hadn't since before the accident, and I was afraid to stop, afraid that if I paused for even a moment the spell would break and I would be left staring at a blank screen again.The book was taking shape. It wasn't the kind of story I used to write, the steamy romances with forbidden love and impossible choices. This was something different. Something quieter and more honest. A woman rebuilding her life from the ashes, finding strength she didn't know she had, learning to trust herself again.It was fiction. But it wasn't.My phone buzzed with a text from Maya. "How's the w
Iris's POV Six months had passed since the day I walked into the mall as Elena Hart and walked out as Iris Hale. The transition hadn't been easy. There were days when I felt like I was living in two worlds at once, one foot in the present and the other stuck in a past I couldn't access. But slowly, piece by piece, I was finding my footing. The women who had once been my closest friends were becoming my closest friends again, even if I didn't remember the history that had made us that way. They told me stories about college and weddings and late nights that I couldn't recall, and I listened and laughed and tried to stitch together a life from the fragments they offered. Maya, in particular, had refused to let me retreat into the safety of my apartment. She showed up at least once a week with coffee and gossip and a determination to make me remember. She told me about our friendship, about the years we had spent growing up together, about the secrets we had shared and the dreams we
Iris's POV The encounter with Victor stayed with me longer than it should have. I couldn't stop thinking about the way he looked at me, the way his hand felt when he shook mine, the strange sense of familiarity that had washed over me when our eyes met. Something about him felt important, like a missing piece of a puzzle I didn't know I was trying to solve. I pushed the thought aside and focused on the weekend ahead. Marcus was picking up the twins on Saturday to introduce them to Rachel, and I needed to prepare them for what that meant. They had been excited when I told them, chattering about what they would wear and what they would say, but I could see the nervousness underneath their excitement. They wanted to make a good impression on the woman who might become part of their lives. Saturday morning passed in a blur of breakfast and baths and last-minute wardrobe changes. Ava had decided that she needed to wear her favorite dress, the one with the tiny flowers that made her
Iris's POVI was reviewing a financial report on my laptop, and watching over the twins occupied with a puzzle at the kitchen table when my phone rang.Marcus's name flashed on my screen, and I answered on the second ring, keeping my voice professional."Marcus. Is everything alright?""Everything's fine." He paused, and I heard him exhale slowly. "I wanted to ask you something about the kids."I closed my laptop and leaned back in my chair. "What about them?""I want them to meet Rachel. My fiancée." Another pause. "But I wanted to ask your permission first. I know this is complicated, and I don't want to overstep."The words landed somewhere in my chest, heavy and uncomfortable. Rachel, the woman I had met briefly, the one who had looked at me with such careful politeness. She was going to be part of my children's lives. She was going to sit at the same table with them and laugh at their jokes and become someone they knew."I appreciate you asking," I said, keeping my voice steady.
Victor's POVThe moment Marcus walked out of the visiting room, I knew I was done pretending.Six years I had spent in this place, medicated and monitored and treated like a man who had lost his mind. And maybe I had lost it. Maybe the obsession had broken something inside me that could never be repaired. But hearing that Iris was alive, that she had been alive this whole time, that she had given birth to my grandchildren and was living just a few hours away, it woke something in me that I had thought was dead.Hope.I stood up from the table and walked back to my room with steady legs and a steady heart. The guard didn't stop me because they never did anymore. I had been compliant for so long that they had stopped paying attention to me. I sat on the edge of my bed and stared at the wall while my mind raced through possibilities I hadn't allowed myself to consider in years.Iris was alive. She didn't remember me or the life we had shared or the love we had made or the child she had b
Marcus's POVRachel's apartment was on the third floor of a quiet building on the east side of the city. I had been there once before, back when we first started dating and she was still living alone. She had made me dinner and we had stayed up talking until three in the morning, and I had driven home with the feeling that something good was happening in my life. Something I didn't deserve.I parked on the street and sat there for a long moment with my hands on the wheel. I had spent the past few hours in a psychiatric hospital listening to my father confess to things I could barely process. The pheremones. The manipulation. The decades of lies. And underneath all of it, the truth about Adrian Cross and the war he had been waging against our family for years.But none of that mattered right now. What mattered was the woman waiting for me upstairs, the woman I had pushed to the edge of her patience with my hesitations and my unresolved feelings. I had let her walk out of my apartment w
Iris’s POV The drive home felt longer than it should have. Marcus had the radio tuned to that low jazz station he likes, humming off-key while he scrolled emails at red lights. I stared out the passenger window, watching streetlights smear past, but my brain was still stuck on the terrace. I cou
Iris’s POV I should have known from the day I met my fiancé’s father that I would end up sleeping with him. The attraction was so fierce and it was obvious it went both ways. I didn’t go out of my way to seek him out and I even avoided him, but there was no escaping this. I write romance for
Iris’s POV His fingers tightened around my throat. “I know.” The words came out low, steady, and far too calm for the way his hands were pressing into my skin. I clawed at his wrists, my nails digging in, my body twisting beneath him as I tried to pull free. “I know what you’ve been doing.” My
Iris's POVIt's finally the dreaded Friday. I was standing in front of my closet, staring at the armor I'd carefully selected: high-necked black blouse, long sleeves, trousers that buttoned at the waist instead of anything that flowed or teased, when my phone buzzed on the dresser.A text from Marc







