LOGINJuniper.“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
Maya’s POV “Say my name again.”I whispered it at the wall like a dare and then hated myself for it.He did not answer. Morning light cut across the cheap carpet. My shirt was still stuck to me from last night. My panties were a mess I had been too wrecked to change.Elena.He had said it like he already owned the sound.I checked the mailbox in the hallway with my heart in my throat. Just my last name on a strip of paper the landlord had slid in. No first name. I checked the lease photo on my phone. First name was there. The landlord had my full name. The building directory downstairs had my full name. Anyone who wanted it could have it.That did not make it better.I showered with the bathroom fan screaming so I would not hear him on the other side. I made coffee I did not drink. I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the plaster until my eyes burned.Nothing happened that day.Nothing happened the next night either. I lay awake until two listening for the shower, the televisio
Maya’s POV “Don’t listen. Just don’t.”I said it out loud to the dark like the empty apartment might obey me.It didn’t.The shower had already run for twelve minutes. I counted because I had nothing else to do on my first night in this cheap box. Water hit tile. A man hummed something low and off-key. Then the water cut. A cabinet slammed. The television came on too loud and got turned down.I was still standing in the middle of my bedroom with one sock on when the real sound started.A groan.Not the TV. Not a stretch. The kind of sound a man makes when his hand is already on his cock and he has stopped pretending he is only adjusting.I froze with my palm on the shared wall.“Fuck,” he said, voice rough, right against the plaster. “Yeah.”My mouth went dry.I should have put music on. I should have gone to the kitchen and made the instant coffee I bought at the corner store. I should have done anything except press my ear closer until the paint was cold against my cheek.I pressed
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







