Pieces of her

The staff corridor is quiet—eerily so, like the mansion itself is holding its breath.

Most of the other maids have gone to their rooms or finished for the night. My shift is technically over too, but I linger. Something Damien said earlier keeps replaying in my head like a loop I can’t escape.

“I suggest you check your locker before you leave tonight.”

He didn’t say it like a suggestion. He said it like a verdict.

I reach the end of the hallway and stop in front of my locker. My hand hovers near the latch, breath held, pulse racing. I don’t know what I expect—a warning, maybe. A threat.

But when I open the door… I freeze.

Lying neatly inside, with a strange, reverent care, is a silver chain.

Thin. Delicate. Old.

And dangling from it is a crescent-moon pendant.

I stagger back a step like it burned me.

No. No, no, no.

I know this necklace. I know every scratch on its surface, every kink in the chain. I used to trace it on my mother’s chest when I was little, just before bedtime. It was the only thing she ever wore—besides her wedding band.

It disappeared the night she did.

And now, years later… it’s in my locker.

Inside Damien Wolfe’s mansion.

My throat tightens. My fingers tremble as I reach out and touch it, afraid it might vanish. The cool metal sends a shiver up my spine.

He put this here.

He knows.

The pendant swings gently as I lift it, the weight of memory crashing down like a tidal wave.

Why would he have this?

How would he get this?

How long has he known who I am?

My stomach churns. Is this a warning? A power play? Or is he saying something else?

You’re mine now. I know your story. I own your past, too.

My vision blurs, but I blink it back. I refuse to fall apart. Not in his house.

I tuck the necklace into my uniform pocket and slam the locker shut—faster than I probably should. I don’t care. I need air.

But as I turn to leave, I see it—

A camera, small and black, tucked into the corner ceiling, barely noticeable.

Recording.

Watching.

My blood goes cold.

He saw this. He wanted me to find it. He wanted to watch me fall apart.

This wasn’t just about my locker.

It was about control.

And he just made his first real move.

I barely remember the ride back to campus.

Everything feels fuzzy. Distant. My ears ring. My hands haven’t stopped shaking since I left the mansion. Since I found that necklace.

My mother’s necklace.

The necklace that vanished the same night she did.

And somehow… Damien Wolfe has it. Had it. Gave it to me, like a statement. Like a challenge.

I slam the dorm door shut behind me and lean against it, chest heaving. Maya’s not here—thank God. I need a second to breathe without questions. Without jokes.

I take the necklace from my pocket and stare at it under the dim light. It glints softly, like it knows it’s a ghost. A secret. A curse.

What the hell is he trying to do?

How does he even know about this?

Why give it back now?

My thoughts are spinning too fast. I can’t keep up. My mind keeps flashing back to the smirk on his face. That arrogant, unreadable smirk. Like he’d just won something I didn’t even know I was playing for.

I drop the necklace on my desk and run a hand through my hair, pacing. There’s no way this is coincidence. This was intentional. A power move. A line crossed.

But what scares me most isn’t that he crossed it—

It’s that a part of me doesn’t want to stop him.

I fall onto my bed, covering my face with both hands. My skin is still humming from earlier, from being in the same room with him, from his voice, his scent, the dark gleam in his eyes when he looked at me like I was already naked.

Like I belonged to him.

My fingers curl into the sheets. I shut my eyes, trying to shake him off, but Damien Wolfe lingers like heat after lightning—impossible to ignore. My body’s still on edge, too tight, too aware. I hate how much he gets to me. How his eyes undress me without ever laying a hand.

But then I feel something.

A shift in the air. A presence behind me.

Breath against my neck.

My body stills.

“Still acting like you don’t want this?” his voice growls, low and dark.

I turn—and he’s there.

Damien.

Standing at the foot of my bed, eyes half-lidded with hunger, shirt unbuttoned just enough to tease the tattoos lining his chest. He says nothing more. Just watches. Waiting.

I don’t remember opening the door. I don’t remember him coming in.

But I don’t ask.

Because I want him.

I rise from the bed slowly, like he’s gravity and I’m tired of resisting. He steps forward, grabbing my wrist and yanking me flush against him. The heat of his skin seeps through my clothes. My breath catches as he brushes his mouth against my cheek—just a whisper of contact, maddening.

“You think you can ignore me, little maid?” he rasps into my skin. “After that look in your eyes earlier? After the way your thighs clenched when I walked by?”

His hands are everywhere.

Hot, demanding, ruthless.

They grip my waist like they own it, then slide up beneath my shirt—palm dragging along my ribs, knuckles grazing the curve of my breasts until his thumb finds my nipple and presses.

I gasp.

His eyes don’t blink. They devour.

With one flick, he tugs my bra down, and his mouth is on me.

He sucks hard, tongue swirling, then bites—just enough to make my spine arch and a whimper escape.

“You’re so fucking soft,” Damien growls, teeth scraping my skin. “I knew you’d feel like this.”

My thoughts are gone. Melted.

He slides his hand lower, skimming my stomach, dipping beneath my panties—and suddenly, his fingers are there.

Right on my clit.

A bolt of pleasure shoots through me, and I cry out, clinging to his shoulders.

“Already wet for me,” he mutters, voice soaked in sin. “You act like you hate me, but your pussy knows better.”

His thumb circles me slow. Precise. Ruthless.

I moan. Loudly. I don’t care.

He kisses me then—hungry and deep, lips crashing into mine as he works me with his hand. One finger slips inside me, then another.

I squirm. Pant. Grind against his palm.

“Damien—” I breathe, broken.

His head drops between my thighs.

And then—

His tongue is on me.

I nearly black out.

He licks me like he’s starving, tongue dragging through my folds, teasing my clit, sucking it with a filthy groan. His hands pin my hips down when I start to tremble.

“Oh my God,” I whisper, toes curling, thighs shaking. “Damien, please—” I moan, pushing his head against my cunt.

He doesn’t stop.

He licks and tastes and devours until I’m moaning so loud I might wake the dead.

And when I’m right on the edge, right at the point of no return, he pulls away—and flips me onto my back.

His cock is thick and hard, already lined up, already pushing.

I clutch the sheets.

He sinks in slow.

My mouth falls open. My legs wrap around him. My body loses all control.

He’s so big. So deep. Stretching me in ways I didn’t know I could feel.

“You feel that?” he grunts in my ear, hips grinding. “That’s mine now.”

He thrusts again—and I swear, I forget my name.

Every stroke hits deeper. Harder. Like he’s trying to ruin me.

And maybe he is.

Maybe I want him to.

“Say it,” he demands, dragging my leg higher.

“Say what?” I pant, dizzy and gone.

“That you’re mine.”

I bite my lip.

“Say it,” he snarls, fucking me harder. “Now.”

“I’m yours,” I cry out, breaking apart.

“I’m yours, Damien—fuck—I’m yours.”

He groans deep in his chest, hands locking on my hips as he drives into me like he’s never letting go.

His hand wraps around my throat—not tight, just enough to hold me still. His other hand pins my hips as he drives into me like he’s trying to brand me from the inside.

“You think I don’t see it?” he pants against my mouth. “The way you look at me when you think I’m not watching. The way you tremble when I’m close.”

I can’t speak. Can’t think. All I can do is feel.

The bed shakes. The room fades. All that exists is him—his voice, his heat, his body inside mine.

“I’ll ruin you for anyone else,” he growls.

I’m already ruined.

I scream his name as I fall apart around him, and he follows, groaning into my ear as he empties himself inside me, body shaking.

And just when I start to come again, when my entire world explodes behind my eyes—