LOGINJulian The club is loud in the way expensive places are, bass thumping through the floor, bodies packed around the bar under red light. I ignore all of it and follow the host up the back stairs to the private balcony, where one man sits alone with a bottle of scotch and a view of the whole floor.He sees me coming and freezes with the glass halfway to his mouth."Julian?" Lancelot Veyron sets the drink down and stands so fast his chair scrapes the floor. "Julian Macini. I don't believe it.""Lance.""Twelve years." He laughs, shaking his head, and steps forward like he's about to hug me. I stop him with a look, and he pulls back, still grinning. "Same as always. You haven't changed.""You have.""Ouch." He spreads his hands. "You cut me off, you know. I called your office. I sent word through three different people. I even showed up at your wedding to Katrina, and you walked right past me.""I know.""Then why now?" He gestures to the empty chair across from him. "Sit. Please. Drink
JulianI press Daphne back against the wet tile, the full weight of my body pinning her there. Water cascades over both of us. I push my tongue between her lips and take her sweet taste. She moans softly into me, then louder when I tangle my fingers in her wet hair and tilt her head to deepen the kiss. A sharp thread of need cuts straight through me when her teeth catch my bottom lip.“Fuck, baby girl,” I groan against her mouth, then drag my lips down the side of her throat, nipping at the pulse that jumps under my tongue.Her hands are already on me, sliding over my chest, my shoulders, down the ridges of my stomach. She wraps her fingers around my cock without hesitation and gives it a firm stroke that nearly drops me to my knees. I cage her in with both hands against the tile on either side of her head while she works me, slow and deliberate, thumb sweeping over the head and spreading the precum already leaking for her.“That’s it,” I grit out. “Keep touching me just like that
DaphneWater is running down both of us, and Julian cups my face in his hands, tilting my chin up until I have no choice but to look at him."Talk to me," he says quietly. "Whatever this is, I can see it sitting on you.""I'm fine, Julian.""You keep saying that." His thumb brushes along my cheekbone. "You don't have to be fine right now. Not with me."I don't answer, and he doesn't push. Instead he reaches past me, adjusting the water until it's warmer, and turns me by the shoulders so my back is to him."What are you doing?""Taking care of you. Since you won't talk."Julian’s hands find my shoulders first, thumbs working into the knots that have been building there since I don't even know when. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding."You didn't strike me as the massage type.""I contain multitudes." His hands move lower, tracing down my spine, careful, paying attention to every place I flinch. "Better?""A little."He turns me back around, reaches for the washcloth, and
DaphneThe blood draw itself only takes a few minutes, but the doctor wants imaging too, just to check everything lines up before they move forward with donor matching. I lie still under the scanner longer than I expect, staring at the ceiling, running through everything I'll say to Eli once this is over and we finally have good news.Layla waits with me in the hallway afterward, flipping through a magazine she isn't actually reading."They said results could come back same day," she says. "For the blood typing, at least. The rest might take longer.""That's fine. I can wait."It doesn't take as long as I expect. A nurse calls me back into a small office, and the doctor is already sitting there when I walk in, a folder open in front of him, his expression giving nothing away yet."Miss Parker. Have a seat."“Lady Macini.” I correct. “Right. Sorry for addressing you wrongly.”“It’s fine.”I sit, hands folded in my lap, bracing myself for either good news or bad, no in-betwee
JulianKatrina's apartment door isn't locked, which tells me she's still careless enough to think that means something in this city. I let myself in, and I hear her freeze somewhere past the entryway before I even reach the living room."Julian." Her voice comes out thinner than she probably wants it to. "You can't just—""I can do whatever I want in a city that still answers to me."She's standing near the window, a glass of wine forgotten on the counter behind her, and the moment I step fully into the room I watch something in her posture cave inward. Good. She should be afraid. She's earned every bit of it."What do you want?""You know exactly what I want." I keep my voice level, controlled, the kind of calm that unsettles people far more than shouting ever could. "You told Lily we're getting back together. You told her Daphne is bad, that she shouldn't play with her.""I didn't—""Don't insult my intelligence, Katrina. You know exactly what you said."She sets her jaw, some of th
DaphneLily's tongue pokes out the side of her mouth in concentration, gripping her pencil like it might escape if she loosens her fingers even slightly."Is this right?" She holds up her worksheet, three plus four scrawled in careful, wobbly numbers."Count on your fingers if you need to," I tell her, pointing at her hand. "Three here, then keep going. Four, five, six, seven."She counts slowly, lips moving, and lands on seven with a triumphant grin. "Seven!""Perfect."She writes it down, then sets her pencil aside completely, looking up at me with the kind of directness only a five-year-old can manage without any weight behind it."Mummy said she's getting back together with Daddy soon." She says it like she's telling me it might rain later. "We're going to be a family again."I go still, the words landing somewhere I wasn't braced for. "Oh?""Mm-hm." She picks her pencil back up, already moving on to the next problem like she hasn't just knocked the air out of me. "We're going to







