LOGINHe does. He kisses me again, and this time it’s a promise. We keep kissing as our hands begin to move, fumbling with buttons and zippers. My fingers work on the buttons of his shirt, pushing the fabric off his broad shoulders. He makes a low sound of approval as I run my palms over his chest, marveling at the feel of him. He’s still so fit, so solid. Time has been good to him, adding a layer of authority to his handsomeness that only makes my stomach flutter more.He helps me out of my cardigan, then his hands go to the simple wrap dress I’m wearing. He finds the tie at my waist and undoes it with a gentle tug. The dress falls open. He pushes it off my shoulders, letting it pool at my feet. Then, his fingers hook into the sides of my plain cotton underwear. He looks into my eyes, a question in his, and at my slight nod, he draws them down my legs. I step out of them, standing bare before him in the cool, clinical air of his office."You’re so beautiful," he murmurs, his voice thick. H
I haven’t seen my husband in months.I shove things into the hospital bag—sweatpants, a clean t-shirt, his toothbrush—his text was specific. I kiss the kids goodbye in a rush, their little faces blurry in my hurry, and leave them with the sitter.Our sex life had turned into a desert. Dry, empty, a chore neither of us wanted to do. I’m the one who finally said the word: separation. Because sex does matter. Anyone who says it doesn’t is lying or lucky. Since our third baby, Anna, the passion didn’t just fade; it packed its bags and left without a forwarding address. It’s been three months of silence between us, broken only by him showing up to take the kids to the park so I could have a few hours to remember who I was. I was starting to accept the idea of a life without that kind of touch. I’d even joined a ‘holy and wholesome living’ group at church. I wasn’t going to masturbate. The thought felt sad and desperate, a poor imitation of the real thing. I’m not cheating. I know he isn’
He looks rougher than I’ve ever seen him. The sharp, polished edges are gone, replaced by a raw, unshaven scruff and shadows under his bloodshot eyes. The refusal to sign the papers in Vegas, the no-show at the hearing—I met his stubbornness with silence. I cut all contact. My father is still a silent figure in a hospital bed. Zayne is awake, trapped in a body that doesn’t obey him, and I owe him my presence. That’s the debt I’m paying.It’s been almost a month. Gayle called off her wedding to Carlos. She said the accident made her see clearly—she never loved him. Maybe the crash gave us all a brutal sort of clarity. I don’t know. I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, a nervous habit, as Paul steps back to let me into the penthouse.The space is a ghost of itself. Everything is packed into cardboard boxes, taped shut and labeled. The furniture is still here, but it feels empty, waiting. The only thing that isn’t packed, the only thing hanging on the vast living room wall, is our wedd
"How could you do this, Penny?" My mother hisses through her sobs, the sound raw and broken, each gasp like a physical blow. Gayle stands beside her, aggressively wiping at her own face, her movements sharp with anger and disbelief. Carlos holds her from behind, his grip tight as if he’s the only thing keeping her upright. My father lies in a coma. Zayne’s legs are shattered. The doctors say it will take a miracle for him to ever walk again. All because of a crash on the way back from the airport, a stupid accident that shouldn’t have happened. I’ve never felt more horrible in my life, a hollow, nauseous pit where my heart should be.Paul is driving us to the hotel, his knuckles white on the steering wheel, his face a mask of stern concentration as he talks low and fast into his phone. He’s arranging everything—doctors, private rooms for my mother and sister to stay overnight, specialists flying in. The efficiency of it should be comforting, but it just makes me feel worse. I am paral
When the flight lands in Vegas, I'm completely tired, my bones are aching and I could barely move. He lifts me up after helping me change in a knitted turtle neck dress and a jacket. I cling to him, breathing in his scent as the crew members gives us a knowing look.I know that sooner or later, we'd have to get it done with.I fall asleep at the back of the Bentley that drives us to where my parents are, he's more active than me and it makes me extremely jealous especially since he's the one that did this to me.My thighs are burning and sore, vision blurry but I can feel myself getting carried and I can hear my ringtone that comes to a stop.The next morning, I get up with a stretch. My eyes widen when I see a large frame of our wedding photo at the center of a room I recognize well. It's the room we had our wedding night in, the same hotel he took my virginity. He didn't take me to my parents.I hear footsteps approaching, then he appears from the doors with two coffee mugs in han
The single, gritted-out word was a promise and a punctuation mark. Two. The sound of it, heavy with his satisfaction, seemed to hang in the air of the private cabin, thicker than the jet’s own hum.He didn’t pull out. He stayed buried inside me, a solid, unmoving anchor as the last tremors of my second climax finally subsided. My forehead rested on the cool leather of the seat, my entire body lax and humming, held up only by the cage of his arms and the relentless press of him within me. I was utterly spent, a vessel filled and overflowing. I thought, dimly, that we might be finished. That the storm had passed.I was wrong.With a low grunt, he withdrew. The sudden emptiness was a shock, a cold void where there had been heat and fullness. A weak sound of protest escaped my lips.A dark chuckle was his only reply. His hands, large and inescapable, gripped my hips, his thumbs digging into the soft flesh. He didn’t let me collapse. Instead, he lifted me.It was effortless. The sheer phys







