LOGINSienna’s POV “The thirty days are up.” I said it standing in the bedroom doorway with my bag in my hand. The bag was light. I had almost nothing of my own left in the penthouse. Damian Crowe stood at the window with his back to me like he had not heard the date change at midnight. He turned around. “Put the bag down.” “The contract says I leave today. Payment hits this morning. I checked.” “I know what the contract says. I wrote it. Put the bag down, Sienna.” I did not. He walked toward me slow. He took the bag out of my hand and set it on the floor without looking at it. “You are not walking out of here.” My voice shook. “That was the rule. No feelings. Thirty days. I leave.” He backed me into the wall and put his hand around my throat. Not hard. Just enough that I felt the decision in his palm. “You broke the rule first. You stopped counting. You slept on my chest. You came on my name. Do not stand here and quote paper at me.” He kissed me. It was the first time he had
Sienna’s POV “You are not going downstairs today.” Damian said it at 6:40 in the morning while he was still inside me. Day twelve. I had stopped keeping a calendar on my phone because he kept pulling it out of my hand. I tried to catch my breath. “The contract says I can leave the penthouse.” “The contract says physical availability at my discretion. Today my discretion is this bed.” He rolled his hips and pushed deeper. I was already sore from last night and it still made my toes curl. He held my thigh over his hip and fucked me slow, like he had cancelled every meeting just to stay in me. “Say the rule.” My voice broke. “No feelings.” “Say it like you still believe it.” I could not. He smiled against my throat and rubbed my clit with his thumb until I came shaking around him. He did not come yet. He pulled out, flipped me onto my stomach, and slid back in from behind. One hand on the back of my neck. The other gripping my hip hard enough to bruise. “You flinched when I sa
Sienna’s POV “Thirty days. You live here. You sleep in my bed when I want you there. You do not ask questions about my work. You do not fall in love. When the month is over you leave with the money and we do not speak again.”That was how Damian Crowe said it. Sitting across from me in a glass office that looked down on the whole city like he owned the view and everyone under it.I am Sienna Vale. Twenty seven. Three months behind on rent. Mother’s treatment invoices stacked on my counter. A bank account that hit twelve dollars that morning. I had sent the application to his private listing because the number at the bottom of the page would wipe everything clean.He slid the contract across the table.“Read it out loud. I want to hear you say the rule.”I picked it up. My voice did not sound like mine.“The arrangement lasts thirty days. Compensation is paid in full on day thirty one if all terms are met. The recipient agrees there will be no emotional attachment. Physical availabili
Ava “Both of you. Thursday. 4:30. My office. Extra credit. Come together.” That was the whole email. No greeting. No explanation. Just those lines from Professor Cade Holloway sitting in my inbox under the subject line I had been dreading since grades posted. I showed it to Lila in the library stacks with my phone under the table. Lila bit her lip. “He sent you the same one.” “He sent us the same one. Look at the recipients.” Both of our names. Ava Bennett. Lila Morse. Same section. Same failing midterm. Same shy way we sat in the back and never raised our hands. Cade Holloway was forty one, all quiet authority and rolled sleeves, and he had never once called on us until the grades came out and we both sat at forty eight percent. Lila whispered, “Extra credit together. What does that even mean.” I already knew what it meant. My thighs were pressed together under the table and I hated that I knew. Thursday at 4:28 we stood outside his office. The hallway was empty. Late buildi
Sienna’s POV “Do not answer that yet. Come down.” I climbed off the top bunk with his come still sliding down my thigh and found him in the kitchen with my phone. Mom’s message glowed on the screen. Office. Beds this weekend. Privacy. Cole set the phone on the counter and caged me in with his arms, his mouth at my ear. “You are going to tell her no. Sweet. Tired of the subject. If she buys a bed and sticks me in the office the click means nothing. Type what I say.” I typed. The bunks are actually fine. I like having someone in the room. Office is a wreck. Do not spend the money. Love you. He read it. “Send.” I sent it. She hearted it. Okay baby if you are sure. Cole turned me around, lifted me onto the counter, and yanked my shorts down my legs before the screen went dark. He dropped to his knees on the kitchen tile, shoved my thighs wide, and put his mouth on me like the house being empty was a dare. His tongue dragged through the mess he had already left in me, slow then fi
Sienna’s POV “Did you sleep all right in the new bunks?” Mom asked it over scrambled eggs like it was about the mattress and not about the fact that I could still feel Cole between my legs. I kept my eyes on my plate. Across the table he drank his coffee black and looked bored in a way that felt like a hand on the back of my neck. “Fine,” I said. “The bottom is good.” “See?” Mom smiled at him. “I told you it would work. Guest room stays clean. You two can survive a semester.” Cole shrugged. “Bunks are fine, Lauren.” He used her first name the way he always did, polite and distant, and under the table his bare foot hooked around my ankle and stayed there until I had to press my thighs together. I ate. I nodded when she talked about her shift. I did not look at the hallway that led back to the room where the bottom sheet was still damp. That night her door clicked at ten thirty-eight. I heard it from the bottom bunk. I heard the ladder stay still. I heard him wait. “Sienna.” H
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
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