LOGINMaya’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
MAYA. “Don’t talk.” That was the last thing he said for ten minutes. Rain. Wipers. His come cooling on my thighs under the dress. Every time I shifted I felt it smear. I kept my knees together and it did not help. I could smell us in the cab. I could still feel where he had been. My phone buzzed once. I did not look. I knew it was Dad. Cole drove the speed limit like nothing in his truck was wrecked. His hand stayed on the wheel. The other sat on his thigh, the same hand that had been inside me, the same fingers that had held my jaw. I watched the houses start to look familiar and hated how close home was. Two streets out he slowed. “Unbuckle.” I unbuckled. He turned onto my block and parked under the dark tree two houses down, engine running, lights off. Dad’s porch light was on. The upstairs hall window too. He was waiting. Cole stared at the house, not at me. “This doesn’t happen again.” I nodded. My throat was tight. “You walk in. You say the party ran late. You say I p
MAYA. “Type it.” His fingers were still inside me. Two of them. Bent. Slow. My phone shook in my hand. I typed with my thumb. Close. Ten minutes. I hit send. The screen went dark. Cole took the phone and dropped it in the cup holder without looking away from my face. “Good girl.” He said it like it burned him. Then he shoved his seat back, hauled me across the console, and sat me in his lap facing him. My knees rammed the door and the wheel. The dress was a belt around my waist. His jeans were rough under my bare ass. “Cole. The windows.” “They’re fogged. Nobody’s out here.” He freed himself with one hand. I felt it slap up against me, thick and hot and already wet at the head. Bigger than I had let myself picture in my bed at night. I looked down. I should not have looked down. The sight of his cock against my shaved pussy, against the place his fingers had just been, made my stomach flip. “Last time I ask,” he said. “You want out of this truck, you say it now.” I took hi
MAYA.“Don’t move your hand.”That was all he said. His palm was still locked over my wrist under the dress, pressing my own fingers against my pussy like he was making me feel what I had started. The truck crawled down the dark road. Rain turned the windshield to a blur. I could hear myself breathing.“Cole.”“I heard you.”He did not take the highway. Trees closed in on both sides. No streetlights. Just his headlights and the slap of the wipers and the heat of his hand holding mine where I was soaked.He dragged my fingers once. Slow. Using them. Making me rub my own clit while he steered with the other hand. My hips lifted off the seat and a sound came out of me I had never made in front of him.“That’s what you wanted,” he said. “Say it.”“I wanted you to touch me.”“I am touching you. I’m making you do it.”He pushed my two fingers lower and slid them through my folds until they slipped inside me. Shallow. He held them there. I was so wet it made a small filthy noise under the dr
MAYA. “Your dad sent me. Get in.” Cole said it through the open window like he had every right to pull up at two in the morning and take me. Same black truck. Same voice that used to tell me to put a sweater on at cookouts. He did not smile. I was on Jenna’s porch with my heels dangling from two fingers and my dress glued to the backs of my thighs. I had already opened the Uber app. Then his headlights cut the yard and my stomach dropped like I had missed a step. “I can get home.” “You can get in the truck, Maya. Now.” I got in. The cab hit me first. His cologne. Leather. The mint gum he chewed when he drove at night. When I sat, the dress rode up so high I felt air on the lace between my legs. I tugged it once. It slid right back. He kept his eyes on the windshield while I did it, jaw locked, like looking would cost him something. “Buckle.” I buckled. The strap cut down between my breasts and flattened the thin fabric. My nipples were already tight from the night air. I saw
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
CIARA'S POV I could tell it was my husband from the way he tilted his head and sharp blue eyes peeked out through the mask and stared intensely at me from across the crowded hall like he wanted to drag me into the nearest dark corner and fuck me against the wall until I forgot my own name. I
Ciara's POV I gulp. My legs are trembling. I'm breathing too fast. I can't look at him and not remember last night how I shamelessly came alive and gosh... My panties are sticky to my inner thighs. He puts his hands around my waist to settle me as he lowers his face to my chin, trailing his







