MasukMaya’s POVI tug my jacket down, hyper aware of how short it is. I should’ve gone with the other option, but I’d missed my alarm and woke up to the sunlight fresh on my face and my phone on the ground, faced down. I’d reached for it in my sleep and mistakenly knocked it off the cheap bedside table with a wobbly leg that I got from an outdoor sale. So I grabbed the first jacket that looked like what I’d mentally picked out the night before, shrugged it on, and bailed. I only realized my mistake when I tried to unclip my ID card at the gate so the security personnel could scan it. My stomach is swarming with angry butterflies, and I must’ve wiped my hands down my skirt no less than ten times since I walked into the building. “This isn’t your first rodeo, Maya,” I mutter to myself as I walk briskly down the hallway, sparing glances at the officials in offices with thick, soundproof glass walls. “You’re a stellar agent. You’ve been awarded twice in the last two years for your quick w
Lucien’s POV“Expecting someone?” Kendall gasps, staggering backward as the steel pipe in his hand falls to the cement floor with a loud clang. “W-what are you doing here?” he stammers, going sheet white. “What else do you think?” I drawl, lifting my shoulders with a nonchalant shrug. “You asked for my help, remember? You said my brother was after you—that you had something I needed. No?” I take a step forward, and he moves back, his body radiating with fear and panic. One word comes to mind. Pathetic. My father. Antonio. Salvatore, hiding somewhere like the coward he is. Kendall—I shake my head, clicking my tongue in distaste. “Really? You’re choosing this time to be mute? You weren’t quiet when you made Maya think she had a stalker. You didn’t hesitate to manipulate her into spying for you, threatening her with the life of her daughter,” I snarl. My jaw grinds with anger as I bend low, picking up his pipe. My daughter. The love of my life. I slap the pipe across the air, the
Lucien’s POVAntonio’s body hits the ground with a sickening thud. He puts his hands up as I march over, protecting his face as he blubbers intelligible words. “What?” I laugh darkly, crouching next to him. “Are you ready to talk? Or do you still believe our older brother will come to save you?”His words, when I walked into his horridly put-together office, were—“I’ve been waiting for you. Are you ready to turn over the company to its rightful owners?”I knew. Salvatore had reached out to him. Whatever he promised Antonio, it was enough for him to forget that I’d punched the lights out of him before. So I decided another lesson was in order. Blood leaks from his nostrils, trailing down his lips in a rivulet along his white shirt. He grabs his broken nose with his fingers, struggling into a sitting position. I clamp a hand down on his shoulder, pushing him back down. My fingers dig into his shoulder blades, and he winces, shuddering from the pain. “Don’t make this harder than
Lucien’s POVThe room is too quiet.Not the kind of silence where there’s nothing in the air. I can hear the steady beep, echoing from the machine beside her bed. It doesn’t change. It doesn’t falter. It just… continues, as if nothing has happened. That’s the quiet that eats through me, because it acts like everything is normal. Air hums softly through the vents overhead, cold and mechanical Somewhere down the hall, a cart rattles faintly, wheels squeaking against polished floors, voices murmuring low and distant before fading again.None of it matters.None of it reaches me.My eyes stay fixed on her. Maya.She lies too still against the stark white sheets, her body swallowed by them, like she’s been reduced to something fragile. Too fragile. There’s a bandage wrapped around her head, another at her arm, bruises blooming faintly along her skin in shades that shouldn’t belong to her.Her chest rises and falls, slow and steady.She’s alive. My throat tightens, something thick and sh
Maya’s POV I glance around, studying the faces of the people we walk past in the lobby. At some point, I contemplate faking a run and then dashing off in the other direction. But he places a hand on my arm, as if reading my thoughts. “My men are everywhere, Miss Serrano,” he murmurs, using my real name. The ruse is up. I’m afraid you won’t go very far. So I suggest you don’t try at all.”I make out one of them, from the corner of my eye, standing behind a group of people. His hand goes to his hip as we make eye contact, silently threatening. A gun. Another one, standing by the entrance, wearing a guard uniform. I spot him easily, because I know the faces of the usual security guards. My heart races as I pick them out, one by one, stationed all around the lobby, within a few feet of one another. Salvatore’s right.It’s too much of a risk to make a run for it. And if I decide to take the risk—“It won’t nick any vital organs,” he says, a thin, patronizing smile on his face as he gl
He doesn’t make me wait. His cock springs free, thick and hard, the tip already glistening. I wrap my fingers around him, stroking once, twice, before he groans and bats my hand away. "Not like this," he growls, gripping my hips and pulling me to the very edge of the counter.I barely have time to process before he’s lining himself up, the head of his cock pressing against my entrance. "Lucien—" His name is a warning, a plea, but he doesn’t stop.He slams into me in one brutal thrust, filling me to the brink. I cry out, my nails digging into his shoulders, my body stretching to accommodate him. "Fuck—" He groans, his forehead pressing against mine, his breath hot and ragged. "You feel perfect."I can’t even form words. My body is on fire, every nerve ending alight as he pulls back and slams into me again. The counter digs into my back, but I don’t care. All I can focus on is the way he fills me, the way his cock drags against every sensitive inch of me.His hands grip my ass, lifting
“He’s your mom’s boss,” Celia says before I can peel my tongue off the roof of my mouth.Adrianna’s eyes widen. “Her boss?”She lets go of Celia’s hand and marches over to me, folding her arms across her chest when she stops a few feet away. Her chin lifts, just like her mother’s, ever so high and
Maya I knew it. I stare at the dress on my bed, wrinkling my nose in distaste. There’s almost nothing to it, like I suspected when he practically blackmailed me to come with him. It’s a black dress, a LBD, except that what’s little about it is what’s covering the front. It’s long enough to cover
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVEMaya“124 Broadway Road. 20 minutes.”My hands are shaking as I stare at the text from my stalker. This has to be a joke. But it isn't. He has made that we'll known. I have barely slept since last night. I’m constantly jolting awake, thinking that someone is going to grab Adria
Lucien My phone vibrates against the polished wood of my desk, the screen flashing a name I hadn’t expected to see. Guiliana’s father. I hesitate for a second, finger hovering over the green icon. He’s never been someone who makes calls without purpose, and I know that purpose is likely something







