Chapter 4

Calder’s POV

She hasn’t left my mind since that night. One accidental step through an open door. One frozen heartbeat where our eyes locked and the world narrowed to the sound of her quick, startled inhale. Now every quiet moment is infected with her, Greer.

The way her gaze dropped to my cock, lingered long enough to sear the image into me, then snapped away like she’d been caught in something criminal. The flush that climbed her throat in slow, guilty waves. The soft hitch in her breath that echoed in my chest for hours afterward.

I’ve told myself a hundred times it means nothing. Biology. A man’s body reacting to proximity, to youth, to the sheer wrongness of the situation. She’s eighteen. My son’s soon-to-be stepsister. My fiancée’s daughter. The lines couldn’t be drawn any sharper, any more final. And yet.

Dinner that evening was unbearable. The long mahogany table gleamed under the chandelier’s low, golden light. Veda sat to my right in emerald silk that caught every flicker, chatting brightly about seating charts, champagne vintages, and the string quartet she’d finally booked. Wells lounged across from her, half-distracted by whatever notification lit up his phone screen. Indira beside him, her posture perfect, smile polished, every movement calculated for maximum elegance.

And Greer, directly opposite me, head lowered, fork tracing invisible, endless patterns through the remnants of her risotto. I tried not to look. I failed spectacularly.

Every time my eyes lifted from my plate they found her. The delicate column of her throat when she swallowed. The faint shadow her lashes cast across her cheeks. The way her lips parted slightly on each quiet, shallow breath. I imagined. Jesus Christ!

Forgive me!

Those lips parting wider. Gasping my name. Wrapped around the length of me while her eyes watered and her hands gripped my thighs. The thought hit like a fist to the gut. I forced conversation to drown it.

"Wells,” I said, voice steadier than I felt. “Practice went well today?” He glanced up, surprised I’d addressed him directly. “Yeah. The coach is coaching me for the next game.”

“Good. Consistency matters more than talent at your level.” Veda laughed lightly, touching my forearm. “Always the strategist, darling. Even at dinner.”

I offered a tight smile that felt more like a grimace. Greer stayed silent through the exchange. Her eyes flicked up once. It was wide, startled, like she’d been caught listening to something she shouldn’t. And then dropped again. Her fingers tightened on her fork until her knuckles paled white against the silver. She dropped it immediately and excused herself. I tried small talk with Indira next. Weather in the city. Her upcoming university applications.

Safe, neutral topics that should have anchored me. None of it worked. My pulse stayed too high, my thoughts too low. Under the table my thigh tensed rhythmically, remembering the exact second her gaze had landed between my legs that night, how she’d frozen, how her pupils had blown wide, how she hadn’t immediately looked away. I excused myself before dessert was cleared.

The hallway felt longer than usual, shadows stretching across the marble like fingers. My study door stood open, light spilling warm into the corridor, but I didn’t go in. My feet carried me instead to the guest wing. To her door. I stopped outside it. This was madness.

I command boardrooms full of men twice my age. I close deals worth billions without breaking a sweat. Control is not something I possess, it’s who I am. Yet here I stood, heart hammering, seconds from knocking because I couldn’t erase the memory of her eyes on my cock, the way her breath had caught, the way her body had betrayed the same forbidden curiosity I felt burning through me. I raised my fist to knock.

Lowered it. Raised it again. Then I heard the music. Low. Sultry. Bass thrumming through the wood like a second heartbeat. I shouldn’t have looked. I pushed the door open an inch. Just enough. Greer stood in the center of the room, back to me, wireless headphones on, eyes closed. Tiny sleep shorts that barely covered the curve of her ass. Thin tank top clinging to the dip of her waist and the gentle swell of her breasts. Her hips rolled slowly, deliberately, following the rhythm of whatever filthy track was playing.

Arms lifted, fingers threading through her hair, body swaying like she was alone in the universe, innocent yet achingly sensual. The way her ass flexed with each slow grind. The subtle bounce of her breasts beneath cotton. The arch of her back when she dipped low and rose again. I couldn’t breathe properly.

My cock thickened instantly, it was hard, aching, straining against wool in seconds. She spun. Our eyes met. She froze mid-motion. Headphones slipped down to hang around her neck. Music leaked out—slowly, explicit lyrics about craving what’s forbidden, about bodies that shouldn’t touch but do anyway.

"Mr. Rhys,” she whispered.

Shocked. Voice trembling at the edges.

I turned to leave.

“Calder—wait!” Her bare feet slapped the floor as she ran after me. I should have kept walking but I didn’t. She reached for my arm and she missed it. She stumbled on the edge of the rug.

She fell forward. Straight into me. Her cheek landed against the front of my slacks. Right over the thick, straining ridge of my erection.

Time fractured. Her breath came hot through the fabric. Once. Twice. A soft, startled sound slipped from her throat—not quite a gasp, not quite a moan, but something dangerously close to both. I went rigid. Every muscle locked.

She didn’t pull away. Neither did I.

Her hands braced on my thighs, fingers digging in, feeling the tremor that ran through me. Her face stayed pressed to me, nose brushing the hard length, lips so close I could feel the damp heat of her mouth seeping through wool.

My hand moved slowly, involuntarily and settled on the back of her head. Not pushing. Not pulling. Just resting. Feeling the silk of her hair. Feeling her shiver under my palm.

“Greer,” I said. Voice gravel. Barely recognizable as my own. She didn’t move.

Her breath puffed again, deliberate now. Warm. Teasing. Her cheek nuzzled, just the slightest shift against the bulge, I sucked in air through clenched teeth. She lifted her head slowly. Eyes wide. Pupils blown dark. Lips parted. Cheeks scarlet.

Our gazes locked. Hers dropped to my mouth, then lower. To where her face had just rested. To where I throbbed visibly for her.

“I—” she started.

"Don’t,” I cut in. Rougher than I intended. “Don’t apologize.”

She swallowed. The sound is loud in the quiet hall.

We stayed like that, hand still tangled in her hair. Neither of us is moving to break the contact. The air between us crackled, thick with everything we weren’t saying, everything we shouldn’t want.

Her fingers flexed on my thighs. Then one hesitant inch higher. Grazing the base of my cock through fabric. I shuddered. Hard. She felt it. Her eyes flicked up again searching, daring, a spark of something reckless in them. I didn’t step back.

I didn’t pull her up. I simply stood there, letting her feel me. Letting her see exactly what she’d done. Her tongue darted out, wet her bottom lip in one slow, deliberate swipe. The sight snapped something low and primal in my gut.

My thumb brushed once, barely against the nape of her neck.

She shivered harder. Nipples peaked visibly against her thin tank top.

Neither of us spoke. Neither of us moved away.

The hallway stayed silent except for our breathing, ragged, uneven, perfectly matched.

I knew I should stop this. I knew I should walk out that door and never look back. But my hand stayed in her hair. And she stayed on her knees.

Pressed against me.

Waiting.