LOGINZaren didn't give Sol a chance to breathe. The second the door closed behind them, he was on him—mouth crashing down like a claim, hard and ruthless. Their lips slammed together in a bruising kiss that tasted of pent-up hunger and raw dominance. Zaren's tongue forced its way past Sol's lips, stroking deep, fucking his mouth with filthy intent while his hands gripped Sol's hips hard enough to leave marks. Sol moaned into the kiss, the sound swallowed greedily as Zaren backed him up against the nearest wall with a heavy thud."Fuck, I've been thinking about this all day," Zaren growled against his lips, biting Sol's bottom lip and sucking it into his mouth. His hand slid down instantly, palming the thick, aching bulge straining against Sol's pants. He squeezed possessively, stroking the rigid length through the fabric with rough, deliberate pressure. Precum was already soaking through, and Zaren's thumb circled the wet head, teasing mercilessly. "Look at you. So fucking hard for me alre
Show MeThe silence stretched.Sol let it.Then he tilted his head. One side. Slow. The corner of his mouth pulling up into the specific smile he reserved for situations where the intelligent choice was to stop talking.He didn't stop talking."How hard can you punish me." His voice came out even. Almost bored. "Show me, Zeran."The red in Zeran's eyes went very bright.Then he moved.Not fast the way panic is fast — fast the way decisions are fast, the way something inevitable finally stops waiting and becomes real. One second he was on the bed and the next he was across the room and Sol's back found the wall and his brain hadn't fully processed the in-between.Zeran's hand was at his jaw.Not rough. That was the thing that wrecked him — not rough, not aggressive, just certain. Fingers curving under his chin, thumb pressing just below his bottom lip, tilting his face up with the specific confidence of someone who had done the calculation and already knew the answer.Sol's smirk was s
The LionSol watched Malik disappear through the crowd and didn't follow.He sipped his wine.His eyes moved the way they always moved at these things — lazy, unhurried, touching everything without settling — until they found what they'd been avoiding finding for the last twenty minutes.Zeran.And the girl pressed against his arm like she lived there.Sol's jaw tightened.She was touching him again — her hand on his chest this time, fingertips trailing down the front of his shirt like she was reading something written there, her mouth curved up at whatever he'd just said. Zeran wasn't moving away. Wasn't removing the hand. Just standing there letting it happen with that expression he wore when he was deciding whether something was worth his attention.The heat that moved through Sol was not slow.He set his glass down and crossed the room."Am I interrupting something."Not a question.Zeran's eyes moved to him. The girl — Rissa — turned. And Zeran said nothing, just looked at Sol wi
GoldThe room was too loud.That was the first thing Malik registered when Kai's hand left him — the noise rushing back in like something had been muffling it and suddenly stopped. Conversation. Music. Glass on glass. All of it returning at full volume while he stood there with the ghost of a grip on his arm and absolutely no explanation for why his skin was still reacting to it.He didn't move.Couldn't, for a second.Then he heard the voice again — low, unhurried, carrying the kind of weight that didn't need volume — and his body made the decision before his mind caught up.He turned.His eyes found Kai the way eyes find things they have no business finding — immediately, without searching, like they already knew exactly where to go.He stood maybe twenty feet away talking to someone Malik didn't register because the second Kai came into full view everything else in the room went slightly out of focus. Not dramatically. Just — less. Less present. Less important. Like the room had qu
StrawberryThe ballroom had found its rhythm again.Glasses refilling. Conversations rebuilding. The dance floor still moving like nothing had happened, like the last twenty minutes hadn't happened, like Liora's skin wasn't still burning in the exact shape of Keal's hand.She stood near the edge of the room with Derek's drink in her hand and Derek's voice in her ear and her mind somewhere else entirely.Then she felt it.The particular quality of attention that arrives before the person does. She turned.Priscilla was already close. Moving through the crowd with a fresh glass extended, silver dress catching every light in the room, smile arranged into something that almost looked friendly.Almost."Here." She held out the drink.Liora looked at it. Looked at her. Took it.She didn't drink it.Priscilla's smile didn't move. Her eyes traveled down Liora's dress and back up slowly, the kind of look that was never actually about the dress."I must say." A small tilt of her head. "This dre
The DanceThe ballroom hummed with conversation and crystal and the kind of laughter that cost money.Derek crossed the room toward Liora."You look gorgeous."She turned. Smiled.Keal was already beside her when it happened — close enough to feel the shift in her, close enough to watch her face do something soft for another man — and the heat that moved through him was fast and ugly and instant.He turned to her. Not Derek. Her."I don't know what game you're playing." Low. Controlled. "But don't pull that stunt with Priscilla again. She's too fragile for whatever this is."He walked away.Liora stood there and felt something crack open in the center of her chest. The tears came before she could stop them. One. Then another.Derek's hand landed on her shoulder."Hey. You okay?"She nodded. Tried to find the smile. It wouldn't come.His palm curved against her cheek, thumb near the corner of her mouth, and he looked at her like she was worth the trouble."Let me take your pain away."







