MasukDaphneThe 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
JulianThe warehouse smells like salt water and diesel, the kind of cold that settles into your bones no matter how many layers you're wearing. Forklifts move between rows of stacked containers, engines humming low under the clang of metal against metal, men shouting numbers back and forth across the floor.Luca falls into step beside me as I walk the length of the second row, checking manifests against the containers marked for tonight's shipment."Everything on schedule?""Two containers running behind. Customs delay at the port, nothing we can't handle." He taps something into the tablet in his hand. "The rest goes out on the midnight run like planned.""Good." I stop in front of a container marked with a shipping code only a handful of men in this city would recognize for what it actually means. "Make sure the manifest paperwork matches what customs is expecting. I don't want anyone pulling a container for inspection because some number doesn't line up.""Already triple-checked it
DaphneJulian finally lets me up a little after noon, and the second I'm free I head straight for the stairs, phone in hand, three missed calls from Layla lighting up the screen along with a handful of unanswered texts. I called her on the drive back from the ranch, told her we were close, but then everything with Julian happened the moment we walked through the door, and I never made it down to actually see her.Guilt sits heavy in my chest as I hit the last step and nearly run into Rose in the hallway."Good day, Lady Macini." She smiles, hands folded in front of her apron. "Is there something you'd like? Tea, coffee?""I'm fine, thank you." I try to smile back, still catching my breath a little. "Do you know where my brother and my friend are?""The guest room, east wing. They've been there most of the morning.""Thank you, Rose."I make my way down the east corridor, and I can hear them before I even reach the door, Layla's laugh carrying through the wood, followed by Eli saying s
Daphne Julian pulls back just enough to reach the ropes at my ankles. The knots come free one after the other. My legs drop, aching from how long they’ve been held open, but he doesn’t give me time to stretch. He flips me onto my stomach in one smooth move, the blue dress still bunched around my waist, wrists still bound tight to the headboard. My ass is up, presented to him, and I feel the air hit everything that’s already swollen and wet.Then he spreads my cheeks with both hands and stares for a long second. Then the thick head of his cock presses against my pussy and he sinks in with one long, deep thrust that forces a scream straight into the pillow.“Holy fucking Christ…”The force of it rocks me forward. My bound hands can’t brace me. He doesn’t slow down. He fucks me hard, hips slamming, every stroke bottoming out so deep I feel it in my stomach. The pillow muffles the broken sounds I can’t stop making. My thighs shake. Every time he drives in I clench around him withou







