Chapter Five: Shadows in the Hallway

My body was still buzzing hours later, but my mind wouldn’t shut up.

I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, thighs sticky again even after I’d cleaned up. Every time I closed my eyes I felt Hermes’s fingers inside me, heard his voice growling “this greedy little cunt is mine.” The guilt was eating me alive now. 

Not just because of Mom, but because part of me didn’t care part of me wanted to sneak back to his room right now and beg him to finally fuck me properly.

A soft knock on my door made me jump.

“Liana?” Kyle’s voice, low and careful. 

“Baby, please,I know you’re in there.”

My stomach dropped,I hadn’t answered any of his texts all day. I thought ignoring him would make him disappear. 

Apparently not.

I opened the door just a crack, not letting him inside. 

He looked rough, eyes red, hair messy, the same shirt from the wedding night. “What do you want, Kyle?”

“To explain.” He tried to push the door open wider but I held it firm. 

“That girl meant nothing, I was drunk, and didn't know what I was doing… I fucked up but I love you and you know that.”

The words that used to make me melt now felt like cheap lies.I thought about my stepdad's possessive grip, the way he looked at me like I was something precious and filthy at the same time. Kyle never made me feel like that.

“Go away,” I whispered. “It’s over.”

He leaned closer, voice dropping. “Is this because of him? Your new stepdad? I saw how he was watching you at the reception.”

My heart slammed against my ribs. “What are you talking about?”

Kyle’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t play dumb. The way he stared at you… if I didn’t know better I’d think something was going on,you wouldn’t be that stupid though, right?”

The accusation hung in the air like smoke. I wanted to slam the door in his face, but fear kept me frozen. If Kyle even suspected…

“Leave me alone,” I hissed, finally shoving the door shut and locking it.

I pressed my back against it, breathing hard,my pussy was wet again from the fear, from the memory, from the sick thrill that someone might find out. 

This was getting too dangerous and too real.

Later that night, when the house was quiet, I couldn’t stay away, I crept down the hallway toward my stepdad suite, my silk robe barely covering anything. The door was cracked open like he was waiting for me to slip inside.

He was on the phone by the window, voice low and sharp. “...keep digging. I need everything on Celeste’s movements last year and Marco, any new leads?”

Marco? My dad? He’d been dead for years. Why was Hermes talking about him like he was still around?

Hermes turned and saw me,his face changed instantly heat mixing with something guarded,he ended the call quickly.

“You shouldn’t be here right now,” he said, but his eyes were already devouring me, lingering on where the robe slipped off one shoulder.

“I know.” I stepped closer anyway, voice small.“Kyle came by and he suspects something.

And I heard you on the phone… What did you mean about my dad?”

Hermes’s jaw tightened. For a second I saw real conflict there, the powerful man who always stayed in control suddenly looking cornered,he pulled me into his arms anyway, kissing me deep and desperate, like he needed me to forget the question.

“Not tonight, princess,” he murmured against my lips, hands sliding under my robe to grip my bare ass. 

“Tonight I just need to taste you again,I need to remind this sweet pussy who it belongs to.”

He dropped to his knees right there, spreading my legs and burying his face between them,I grabbed his hair, moaning softly as his tongue worked me over, licking and sucking like he was starving. The danger of Kyle’s suspicion, the weird phone call, the risk of Mom waking up,it all made everything more intense.

I came hard on his tongue, biting my hand to stay quiet, legs shaking but even as I trembled in his arms afterward, that small seed of doubt had been planted.

Footsteps. Right outside the door.

We both froze immediately.

Hermes went completely still, hands locked on my hips,I stared at the door. There was a thin strip of light underneath it and I watched it go dark as two feet stopped right there on the other side.

Just stopped.

Didn't knock nor moved,just stood there like whoever it was already knew something and was deciding what to do about it.

I couldn't breathe or move,my heart was so loud I was sure she could hear it through the door because it was her, I knew it was her, I knew the way my mother moved in the dark of this house.

One turn of that handle,that's all it would take.

Hermes rose slowly to his feet without making a single sound,his hand came up and covered my mouth,his eyes said don't you dare.

We stood like that for what felt like forever,then the feet moved,slow and deliberate, back down the hall,a door clicked shut.

Neither of us breathed for another full ten seconds.

When he finally lowered his hand I was shaking, not from what we'd been doing, from something colder than that.

"Go back to your room," he said quietly.

I went.

The hallway felt longer than it had twenty minutes ago,her door was closed, no light under it, nothing to tell me what she knew or didn't know or had been standing there deciding.

I got back to my room and sat on the edge of my bed and stared at nothing.

That man is not what he seems and I was only now starting to think Kyle might have been right.

What was Hermes really doing in this house? And how long before everything exploded.