LOGINJuniper. “Sit.” Adrian pointed at the stool at the end of the island. The kitchen was empty. Brunch plates were stacked in the sink. Voices had moved to the living room and the front drive. We had minutes, not hours. I sat. Yesterday’s sweater. No underwear. The wood was cold and I felt myself smear on it the second my bare ass touched down. Cade noticed. He always noticed. “She is leaking on the stool,” he said. “Good,” Adrian said. “Then she will remember this conversation every time she tries to stand up.” Ronan pulled the pad into the middle of the island and clicked the pen. “Rules first. Then nights.” Lila’s laugh carried from the other room. I flinched. Adrian put his hand on my knee under the island and squeezed once, a warning and a comfort in the same grip. “Look at me,” he said. “Not the hallway. Me. You agreed upstairs. You say it again here so nobody gets to rewrite it later.” “I agreed.” “Louder.” “I am staying. I am not packing Sunday. You can have me. All of
Juniper. “Open it.” Adrian first. Then Cade’s voice right behind him. Then Ronan, quieter, already done waiting. I sat up with yesterday’s sweater still on and last night’s mess still dried on my thighs. Three knocks had not been a dream. I crossed the room on legs that did not want to work and turned the handle. They filled the doorway. Adrian had coffee he was not drinking. Cade’s hair was wet. Ronan looked like he had not slept. For one long second nobody moved. Then they all looked at me the same way at the same time, and the secret I had been carrying since Saturday morning cracked open in their faces. Cade laughed once, ugly. “You have to be fucking kidding me.” Adrian stepped in. “Inside. Now. All of you.” Ronan shut the door. Locked it. The click sounded too loud. I backed up until my calves hit the bed. “Say it,” Cade said. “I want to hear you admit it before I decide what I am going to do.” “You already know.” “Say it anyway.” My voice came out thin. “Adrian had
Juniper.“Don’t finish.”Adrian’s voice came through the gap before the door was fully open. I yanked my hand out of my underwear so fast my wrist hit the mattress. He stood in the hallway light looking at my wet fingers and the skirt still bunched around my hips and he did not come all the way in.“Lila is still downstairs,” he said. “If I walk in there right now I am not walking back out quiet. Put your hand down. Go to sleep. Tomorrow is different.”“You opened my door.”“You left it unlocked after three men told you not to. That is not an accident, Juniper. That is an invitation you are not ready to survive tonight.”He looked at my mouth. He looked lower. Then he pulled the door shut himself and I heard him wait on the other side until my breathing slowed.I did not come. I lay there throbbing and furious and so wet it felt stupid. Saturday started like that. Unfinished. Hungry. Already ruined and not even used yet.The house went quiet after two.I told myself I was going down f
Juniper.“You’re staying the whole week, Juniper. I already told Mom you were.”Lila said it like a warning, not a welcome. She kissed my cheek too hard and looked past me at the driveway like she hoped someone better had come with me.“I have a ticket back Sunday,” I said.“No you don’t. Your place still smells like floodwater and you told me you were broke until January. You’re here. Smile.”The house swallowed the rest of the argument. Pine. Woodsmoke. Too much heat. Adrian was already coming down the hall in a black sweater with the sleeves pushed up, silver at his temples, looking at me the way a man looks at a problem he has already decided to solve.“Give me the bag,” he said.“I can carry it.”“I didn’t ask if you could.”His fingers closed over mine on the handle. For a second we both held it. His skin was warm. His thumb dragged once across my knuckle like he was checking the texture. Then he took the suitcase and put his other hand on the small of my back to steer me inside
Maya’s POV “Don’t make a sound.”That was all he said.Nate had me by the shirt the second the door clicked shut. He walked me backward until my shoulders hit the plaster we had been sharing for days. The same wall. Still faintly warm. I could smell him now, soap and skin and the leftover heat of whoever had been here last night.I opened my mouth.He covered it with his hand.Not gentle. Firm. Fingers spread along my jaw, palm sealed over my lips so the only noise I had left was my own breathing through my nose.“Your side can hear this one,” he said against my ear. “So you stay quiet for me.”I nodded under his hand.He shoved my shirt up and looked at me like he had already pictured this. Bare stomach. Cheap panties. Nipples tight from the hallway air and from him. He dragged the panties down my thighs with one hand and left them around one ankle. I stepped out of them because I could not stand the tangle.He did not kiss me first.He put his mouth on my throat and bit, then lower
Maya’s POV “Don’t open it again.” I said it to myself with my forehead on the door and the chain still swinging. I opened it anyway, just enough to stare at the empty hallway. His door was already shut. The tool he had not needed was gone. The building smelled like damp concrete and someone else’s dinner. I locked up. I put on underwear this time. I sat on the edge of my bed and waited for the quiet to break. It broke after midnight. A woman’s laugh came through the plaster first. Soft. Then not soft. I stood up so fast the mattress sighed. “Nate,” she said, and my stomach dropped. I knew that voice was not mine. I knew the way she said his name was already wet. I put both palms on the wall. The bedframe hit a second later. Harder than the nights he had been alone. A body got pinned. I heard skin. I heard the wet punch of a first thrust. I heard her gasp like he had filled her in one go. “Fuck,” she whimpered. “You’re big. Wait. Wait.” He did not wait. The rhythm starte
Ciara's POV "Baby, must you go to work today?" I pout at Simon as we stood facing each other in the center of the room. "Of course I have to, darling, and you know that," he says impatiently. "It wouldn't tell well of me to sit at home a day after my dad's birthday celebration." I bit my l
CAIN'S POV I walked toward Ciara, but Simon quickly intercepted, running his hands all over her body and inquiring if she'd be okay. I step back. I had greeted my dad earlier and my mother wasn't even there. I think I'm done with this party too. I head downstairs to the first floor—still crowd
CAIN POV From the distance where I'm sitting, I watch Ciara tug a stray red lock behind her ears— the same nervous habit she had seven years ago. Some things about her never changed, not even after marrying my brother. She forces a fake smile as she bends to greet the guests, offering me an e
CIARA'S POV Just when I'm still looking around the dark room and regretting my stupid impulse, he undoes his tie, tossing it aside together with his suit jacket. He strides towards me. He surprises me by sliding one rough palm up my bare thigh fingers trailing until his fingers reach the drench







