Se connecterOLIVIA
I woke up slowly, to the feel of sunlight on my face, and a shiver along my spine. It was still silent in the early morning hours, and life seemed so far away that I just couldn’t bring myself to move. Instead I laid there, burying my face in the pillow, and allowing the weight of sleep to slowly crawl off me. It took me a moment to realize that Ethan was still asleep beside me. His arm was around my waist, pulling me flush against his chest, and the shiver along my spine was from his breath. I didn’t move at first, so I wouldn’t wake him up. The pressure of his arm on my waist, the warmth of his bare chest, and the way his beard tickled my neck, everything felt so perfect. I could have stayed there forever. With Ethan by my side, I had no reason to move. All I wanted was him, and knowing that he wanted me too. I could feel just how much he wanted me already, the constant pressure on my thigh reminding me of that ridiculous phenomenon that every man woke up with. I wondered if it was because he was holding me, or if it was just natural. To answer my question, Ethan leaned forward and nuzzled his nose into my neck, and I laughed as soon as his lips brushed my bare skin. His grip tightened, and a groan slipped from deep in his throat. I loved the way his chest rumbled, and I glanced over my shoulder at him. “How long have you been awake?” I asked. “A while,” he replied, smiling like a puppy. “And you decided to stay in bed?” I asked. “Don’t you have to get to work?” “I’m the CEO, Liv,” he said. “If I decide to stay home all day and make love to my wife, who’s going to stop me?” I was about to make fun of him when his hand moved down to my thigh, and I shivered. Tendrils of pleasure crawled up my skin as he dragged his fingers slowly across my bare thigh, causing goosebumps to sprout wherever his fingers were. He continued to nuzzle into my neck, and I pressed back into him, lost in the pleasure that wrapped around me. He felt so strong, and so hard that I just wanted to sink into the mattress and let him do whatever he wanted. “Mm,” he moaned, his hands moving to my inner thigh. “Remind me again how I ended up with such an amazing woman in my bed.” “You won the lottery,” I said, giggling from the sensation. The steady pressure of his hand was pushing my legs apart, and I was already getting wet. When his fingers found my lips, I gasped from the shock. Even after all this time, my body still reacted to him the same way. One touch from him, one slow and careful flicker of his fingers against my body, and I melted into a puddle of desire and electricity. “What’s this?” he whispered against my ear, his breath tickling my skin. “Seems like you were already having dirty thoughts, my darling wife. On a Thursday morning?” “Ethan,” I gasped, my arm wrapping around his head and pulling him closer to me. His fingers were still teasing my opening, the tip of his finger caressing without entering. It felt so fucking good, and I couldn’t stop moaning as he continued to torture me, teasing and touching without crossing the boundary I so desperately wanted him to cross. I wanted him inside me. I wanted his lips on every inch of my body, and I wanted to wrap my arms around him and lose myself, the wave of love and desire sweeping me off my feet. “Do you like this?” he asked, and I knew he said it merely to draw a reaction from me, to further cause me to spiral while he sat back and enjoyed my insanity. “Ethan…” “Say it,” he whispered. “Tell me how much you enjoy it. I want to hear it.” “Eth…” His fingers suddenly froze over my clit, and the stop was so abrupt that I felt like I’d been hit by a truck. I turned around to face him, breathing heavily with my lips parted. His golden eyes stared back at me, but he propped himself up on one elbow, his fingers still pushing gently against my clit. “I’m not going any further until you tell me how badly you want this,” he said. “Are you just trying to torture me?” I asked. “Seriously?” “Feed my ego, Liv,” he said with a smirk. “I need to know that I can still excite my wife.” “Ethan, can you not feel how wet I am?” “Oh,” he said. “I didn’t even notice.” I wanted to hit him. Or bite his neck. I wanted to knock some sense into him, but I was so turned on that I couldn’t think properly. Not when his fingers were still touching me, even if he refused to move. “Ethan…” “Say it,” he demanded. “I want you,” I breathed. “Ethan, make love to me.” His chest rumbled as he leaned close, and I sank into the mattress as he towered over me and leaned in close, his face mere inches from mine while he put his hands under my shorts and slid his middle finger inside me. The sensation of being penetrated by him was maddening. I arched my head back and moaned as his finger curved inside me, and he slowly began to move while applying more pressure each time. I closed my eyes and let the pleasure wash over me, let his hands and lips drive me to the brink of insanity, and feel the weight of him on top of me. This was pure bliss, and I loved him for it. I loved him so much that it felt suffocating, and I couldn’t breathe. There was a pressure deep inside me, rising steadily like a storm, and Ethan kept going until I felt the storm roaring through every inch of my body, and I was lost in the noise. “Fuck,” he groaned, pressing his lips to my ear and kissing the side of my face. “You’re so beautiful, Liv.” I responded by reaching down and wrapping my fingers around his cock. Even through his pants, I could feel how hot and hard he was, and when I slipped my hand under his waistband and gently grabbed his entire length, he grunted. “Not yet,” he murmured, but I didn’t care. I wanted him inside me now, before I exploded. I pulled down his pants before he could resist, and guided him to my center. As he slid inside me, and I parted to welcome him, the sensation was pure ecstasy. We both grunted as I shifted to accommodate him, which was a task on its own since there was so much of him to accommodate. “You feel so good, Liv,” he whispered. “So fucking good.” When he finally buried himself from balls to hilt, I lifted my hips up to meet him and cried out in pleasure. I could feel every stroke deep inside my skull, every move he made sending another whip of unbridled euphoria. I didn’t care about anything else as we moved. Not the test, not the world outside our window, or anything else which had been weighing on my mind. All I cared about was him, his penis, and the love in his heart which he wasn’t keeping hidden. “Liv,” he grunted, and I knew what that meant. I wrapped my legs around him instinctively, and buckled as he began to move faster. I was so close now, so close that I could see over the horizon if I squinted. I could feel the wave returning, roaring and crashing against itself until it broke through, and I exploded around him. “FUCK!” he cried out, crouching over me as he came as well. He emptied himself inside me, while I stared at the ceiling and melted into my orgasm, my entire body shaking like I was being electrocuted. I dug my fingers into his side, and held on as the wave kept crashing against me, on and on until I was spent, and I collapsed in a puddle of sweat and waning pleasure. Ethan fell beside me, and a moment later, he pulled me against him and kissed my bare shoulder. “How you have this effect on me, I will never know,” he sighed. “I’ve put a spell on you, Reynard,” I chuckled. “And you will do as I command if you want this to continue.” He laughed, and as I turned to face him, he asked, “What do you desire? Tell me what you want and I shall give it to you.” Before I could even think properly, I suddenly blurted out, “I want another baby.” Ethan froze, and his eyes widened as he pulled back from me. As soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted it. I tried to reach out to him, but he pulled back and left the bed, and that single move shattered my heart into a million pieces. “Ethan, it’s not what you think,” I said quickly, desperate for him to understand. “I didn’t…” “A consolation?” he asked bitterly. “You think she’s not mine, so you want us to have another? One I can be sure is mine?” “Ethan, that’s not what I meant,” I said. “Please don’t make this something it’s not.” “Don’t lie to me, Liv,” he said. “That is exactly what you are saying. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you suddenly want another baby after what we just found out.” “That’s not what I’m doing.” “Do you take me for a fool?” “Where is this coming from?” I asked, heat rising up my neck. “Do you not see how you’re jumping to conclusions? This is ridiculous.” He stared at me for a long and hard minute, then he turned around and stormed out of the room, his footsteps pounding all the way out of the room, before he slammed the door shut. I sat there in silence, staring at the spot where he’d been standing, and wondering how on earth this just happened. ***OLIVIAThe letter arrived on a Tuesday.I was at the kitchen table, going through emails for the Eden campaign, when the doorman called up to say there was something for me. Not a package, he said. A letter. Hand-delivered, no return address, but the envelope looked personal.I felt the familiar prickle of fear. Hand-delivered. No return address. Those were the same words that had accompanied the box with the photograph, the one with See you soon written on the back."Send it up," I said.Webb brought it to me. He'd checked it for explosives, for powders, for anything suspicious. It was clean. Just a plain white envelope with my name written in careful handwriting I didn't recognize.I opened it slowly.Inside was a photograph. Black and white, old and creased, the kind of picture that had been passed down through generations. It showed a woman standing in front of a house, her face partially obscured by the shadow of a wide-brimmed hat. Beside her was a man in a suit, tall and thin,
OLIVIAThe days after Cross's death passed in a blur of phone calls and dead ends.Callahan called every morning with an update. The investigation into Cross's murder was ongoing, but there was little to go on. The motel had no security cameras, the room had been wiped clean, and the only witness was a night clerk who hadn't seen anything. Marcus had vanished again, and this time he'd left a body behind.I tried to focus on work, but the Eden campaign felt like a distant concern. I went through the motions, answering emails, joining conference calls, revising copy that didn't matter. Nigel noticed. He called me twice to check in, his voice careful, his questions gentle. I told him I was fine. He didn't believe me, but he didn't push.Ethan spent most of his time on the phone with Richard, with Webb, with a private investigator who had been tracking Marcus's movements for weeks. The investigator had a theory. Marcus wasn't just running. He was planning something. Something big."What k
ETHANThe call with Callahan happened at nine the next morning.I sat at the kitchen table with Olivia beside me, her hand wrapped around a cup of tea she wasn't drinking, her eyes fixed on the phone between us. Callahan's voice came through the speaker, tinny and tired."I'll be honest with you both," he said. "We're stretched thin on this one. Marcus has no known associates left, no financial trail, no digital footprint. He's been off the grid since the day he checked out of that motel. Either he's gotten smarter, or someone's helping him.""Someone like who?" I asked."We don't know. Could be an old friend, could be someone he met inside. We're running down every name we've got, but it's slow going."Olivia leaned forward. "What can we do to help?"Callahan hesitated. "Honestly? Nothing. The best thing you can do is stay where you are and let us handle it.""That's not acceptable."I looked at her. There was something different in her voice, something I hadn't heard in weeks. It wa
OLIVIAThree days passed, and Marcus was still out there.I counted the hours by the small rituals that kept me sane. Waking up. Feeding Grace. Checking my phone for updates that never came. The penthouse had become a cage again, and I moved through it like a ghost, touching the same surfaces, walking the same paths, waiting for news that would change everything.Callahan called every afternoon with the same report. No sightings. No activity on Marcus's known accounts. No contact with anyone from his old life. He had vanished, and the not knowing was worse than anything he could have done to me.I thought about him constantly. Not the way I used to, not with the raw terror that had defined the first weeks after his release. This was different. This was a low, constant hum of dread that sat in my chest and never went away. I imagined him watching us from a distance, taking notes, planning his next move. I imagined him finding a way to get to Grace. I imagined the phone ringing and his
OLIVIAThe news about Julian Thorne broke on a Thursday morning, and by Friday afternoon, it had already started to unravel.I was at the kitchen table with my laptop open, a cup of coffee going cold beside me, when the first headline appeared. Tech Mogul Arrested in Fraud Sweep. I clicked on it and read through the article twice, my heart pounding harder with each paragraph. Thorne had been taken into custody at his Manhattan penthouse. The FBI had seized computers, documents, financial records. He was being held without bail pending trial.I called Ethan immediately."Did you see it?" I asked."I saw it." His voice was calm, but I could hear the tension underneath. "Richard just called. He says the evidence is solid. Thorne isn't going anywhere.""And Marcus?"There was a pause on the other end of the line. "No word yet. But without Thorne's money, he's got nothing. It's only a matter of time."I wanted to believe him. I wanted to feel the relief that everyone seemed to expect me to
OLIVIAWe drove back to the city the next morning.I sat in the back seat with Grace in my lap, watching the trees give way to highways and the highways give way to the skyline. Ethan sat beside me, his hand resting on my knee, his thumb tracing slow circles against the fabric of my jeans. Neither of us said much. There wasn't much left to say.The penthouse felt different when we walked through the door. Brighter, maybe. Lighter. The security team was still there, still watching, but the weight that had been pressing down on everything for weeks seemed to have lifted, just a little.I put Grace down for her nap and then stood in the kitchen making tea, my hands moving on autopilot. Ethan was on the phone with Richard, going over the final details of the handoff. The FBI had agreed to take the case. They were sending a team to pick up the documents that afternoon."We're going to need to make a statement," Ethan said, walking into the kitchen after he hung up. "At some point. The pres







