LOGINTwo weeks after my divorce was finalized, I'm still getting used to the silence. The movers have taken everything that once made this house feel like home, leaving behind a collection of unopened boxes and rooms that seem far too large for one person. My coffee sits forgotten on the kitchen counter as I stare through the bare windows. I keep catching myself listening for a voice that will never call from the other room again. Apparently, getting divorced is one thing. Learning to live with the absence is another. A car door shuts beyond the shared fence. I glance through the window and spot him. Griffin. The neighbour with an unpredictable schedule and curly hair that perpetually looks as though he has run his fingers through it and forgotten to fix it. Broad shoulders stretch the fabric of his plain black T-shirt as he carries a toolbox towards his back steps. He doesn't look my way. My attention follows him anyway. The muscles in his forearms shift beneath his skin as he
The door swings inward on silent hinges. A dark figure enters. Vesper intercepts the intruder before they can take another step, driving the barrel of her gun beneath their jaw and forcing them backward into the hallway. A sharp grunt follows, then the heavy impact of a body hitting the wall. I stay exactly where she told me to, my back pressed to the headboard, my heart pounding so violently that the mattress seems to move with it.Two seconds of frantic movement. Then silence. Vesper's voice cuts through the darkness.“Clear. It's over.”I hear the zip ties again, the same efficient sound I heard the night of the kitchen incident. She drags the limp figure farther down the hall. On her return, she closes the suite door, resets the lock with a device I never knew she carried, and turns to face me. She keeps the gun in her hand for another moment before placing it on the table.“Hired muscle,” she says. “Same network as the first one. They won't send anyone else.”I'm still naked unde
As I stare at the silver earring pinched between Vesper’s fingers, its twin still hangs from my left earlobe. My pulse pounds so fiercely I feel it in my teeth. The air in the living room seems to thin. Someone entered this house while we were locked together against the wall. Someone came close enough to steal something from my body and leave it behind like a signature on the floor.Vesper’s face is carved from the same winter stone I remember from the day we met. Only her eyes have changed. They burn with fury.“Get dressed. Now.”I pull the silk dress over my body with trembling hands. The zipper catches halfway up. Vesper steps behind me and draws it the rest of the way without a word. Her knuckles brush the bare skin between my shoulder blades, and the contact sears itself into my awareness.She secures her gun before conducting another thorough sweep of the house. I stand in the middle of the living room, trying not to imagine footsteps where none should have been possible.She
I sit in the glass-walled conference room of Vanguard Protective Services, studying the woman who will either keep me alive or destroy what remains of my carefully managed life.Her name is Vesper Knight. The file on the tablet before me lists seven years of private military contracts, two black-ops extractions, and a reputation for never losing a principal.She remains standing, arms folded across her chest, her posture so rigid she could have been carved from the same black stone as the building. Tall, broad-shouldered, and dressed in a charcoal suit that fits her like a second skin, she exudes an intimidating authority. Her blonde hair is pulled back so tightly that the skin around her temples stretches. Her eyes are the precise gray of a winter sea moments before a storm.“Miss Ashcroft,” she begins, her voice clipped and authoritative. “You've received three letters in the past month. Each described the exact layout of your bedroom, the brand of sheets you prefer, and the time yo
I wake with her weight still draped across me and the phone warm in my palm. Eve’s last message sits there like a live coal. Liora breathes against my throat, one hand resting over my heart. I ease out from under her without waking her and dress in silence. The tracking app glows when I open the settings. I leave it running. Let her know exactly where I go. Eve waits across the street in the black car, the record shop still closed behind her. The moment she sees me, she opens the passenger door. Without a greeting, she pulls away from the curb. Wet pavement glistens beneath the pale morning light. The street is still half asleep, and I never noticed the overnight rain. Eve parks behind a low brick building, a place absent from every recovered scrap of memory. Inside, a single room holds a table, two chairs, and an open laptop. She gets straight to the point. “Watch.” The screen shows security footage from a gas station. The timestamp matches the night of the crash. Liora st
With the phone face down on the nightstand, I force my breathing to match hers. Liora shifts against my chest, one thigh sliding higher until the soft heat of her body rests over me. Even soft, I feel the slick reminder of last night. She wakes the way she does everything, fully present, eyes sharp the second they open. “You are thinking too hard already,” she says, her voice rough with sleep. Her hand trails down my stomach and wraps around me. I thicken beneath her fingers before I can stop it. “Whatever is spinning around in that head of yours can wait.” In one smooth motion, she straddles me, reaches between us, and settles onto me. The sudden heat forces a groan. Both palms press against my chest as she starts to move, slow rolls of her hips that draw a reaction from me every time she sits down. I grip her waist and thrust up hard. “Harder,” she breathes. “You always fucked me like you were trying to crawl inside my skin.” I sit up, wrap an arm around her back, and flip us
For the past three months I’ve been living at Vale Manor, sorting through the private library collection for Lucas and his partner. The job came through a university contact, and I jumped at it. Quiet work, beautiful old house, good pay. What I didn’t plan on was them. They’ve been together for ye
The next morning, my body still remembers every second of last night.I wake up aching in the best and worst ways. My thighs are sore, my nipples still sensitive from how he pinched and teased them. Every time I move, I feel the ghost of Damien’s fingers inside me, the low growl of his voice saying
My body is still trembling, his two broad fingers buried deep inside me, when those five words hit like ice water.“Who the hell are you?”He doesn’t pull his hand away. Instead, he curls his fingers slowly, pressing against that spot that makes my knees buckle. A fresh wave of pleasure rips throug
The ballroom pulses with low music and the clink of expensive champagne glasses. Crystal chandeliers throw golden light across masks and gowns, but I feel like I’m suffocating in the middle of it all. I tug at the edge of my silver mask, making sure it’s still secure. The backless black dress hug






