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Chapter 99 – Stranded

Author: Quinn Montclair
last update Last Updated: 2025-08-25 19:45:25

Sophia

The address doesn’t look like much. Half a duplex on a street where paint peels from porch railings and the air smells faintly of mildew. It seems unfathomable that a man like Marrin would have lived hered, but maybe that’s exactly why he did. It’s forgettable. Nondescript.

I stand at the door with my heart in my throat, picking the lock like it’s second nature. Years of bad foster homes taught me a thing or two about cheap locks. The deadbolt clicks open with an almost insulting ease.

The hallway inside is dark, thick with the smell of dust and stale air. I step over the threshold and the house suddenly seems to come alive.

A mechanical groan, followed by a slam. Then another. Metal shutters slide down over the windows with a finality that makes my stomach lurch. The front door seals behind me with a hiss like hydraulics.

“What the fuck!” I spin, reaching for my phone. No bars. Nothing. Not even emergency signal.

That’s when I hear the sound. Movement. A floorboard creaking d
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  • Undercover Hearts   Chapter 108 – Flour and Sparks

    JamieThe smell hits me first.Not the usual city cocktail of exhaust and too many people in one place, but butter and sugar, warm and sticky-rich, like the whole street’s been dipped in a patisserie. I actually stop mid-step, nose twitching like some Disney woodland creature who just caught a scent trail.I don’t even mean to push open the door. The little bell jingles above my head and I’m in. Surrounded by glass cases, flour dust, and racks of cooling sponge cakes lined up like soldiers who’ve just marched out of the oven.And him.Bent over one of the trays, forearms dusted with flour, hair a mess from heat and effort. Not conventionally neat, not even trying to be. Which makes him, unfortunately, stupidly magnetic.“Sorry, we’re closed,” he says without looking up. His voice is like honey poured over gravel, low and rough but warmed through.The tattoos snaking up his forearms are the sexiest things I’ve ever seen.“Wow. That’s devastating,” I answer automatically. “I was going

  • Undercover Hearts   Chapter 106 – The Aftermath

    MarcusI find Elena in her office at Platinum, her desk half-buried under folders and gleaming screens, light from outside throwing fractured shadows across the glass wall behind her. She doesn’t look up immediately when I step inside, which is her way of making people remember she’s busy and you’re the interruption.“Elena,” I say.Finally, her eyes flick to mine, cool and sharp as cut metal. “Marcus. You’re not usually the one knocking on my door without warning.”I shut the door behind me. Keep my voice level. “We need to talk.”That gets a smile. “About business?”“No. About Sophia.”The silence between us shifts, like a hinge creaking. Elena sets down her pen with deliberate care, her fingers splaying lightly on the desk as if to ground herself. “What about Sophia?”“I’m with her,” I say. No hedging, no softened edges. “It’s not temporary. I’m not hedging my bets with a client. She’s…it. My soulmate. The love of my life, whatever you want to call it.”For a second, the mask holds

  • Undercover Hearts   Chapter 106 – The Break

    PrestonThe café is crowded enough that nobody’s going to overhear, but quiet enough that every scrape of a chair sounds like punctuation. I’ve been here since six-forty-five, because that’s what I do. I’m early. I’m dependable. I order a black coffee and try not to scroll through my phone like a man waiting for bad news.When Sophia walks in, the world seems to rearrange itself, as it always does. She’s in jeans and a sweater, hair pulled back in a way that makes her look like a teenager. Her face is pale and her eyes look haunted. The kind of tired that doesn’t come from work.She spots me, and the corners of her mouth lift just slightly. A mercy smile. My chest tightens.“Hey,” I say when she sits down. “Rough day?”Her laugh is quiet, broken at the edges. “Something like that.”I want to reach across the table, take her hand, be there for her the way I can see she needs. But something in her posture tells me to hold back. She’s braced, like she’s about to jump off a cliff.And sud

  • Undercover Hearts   Chapter 104 – Uncomfortable Truths

    SophiaThe world outside Marcus’s apartment looks almost normal, which feels like a cosmic joke. Cars threading through traffic. A woman jogging past with neon sneakers and a golden retriever. A kid dragging his backpack like it weighs a hundred pounds.None of them know that last night I was trapped behind steel shutters, convinced the man I…. What? Lust after? Trust against my better judgment? Maybe feel the L word for? was the threat. None of them know that somewhere in this city, Marrin is still a shadow with teeth.And none of them know I’ve been living in a triangle sharp enough to cut me open.Marcus leans in the doorway behind me, dressed in that impossible mix of casual and put-together. Jeans, gray T-shirt that stretches across those wide shoulders that deserve a Renaissance painting. His voice is low and careful. “We don’t have to rush this. We can move slow.”Slow. My laugh is short and brittle. “Marcus, do you see our lives? Slow isn’t on the menu. We slept together just

  • Undercover Hearts   Chapter 104 – Afterglow and Politics

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  • Undercover Hearts   Chapter 103 – Reckless and Messy

    MarcusI should be satisfied. I should be calm, drifting in the afterglow of tenderness. But I’m not.Sophia’s sprawled across me, damp hair sticking to my chest, her thigh slung heavy over my hip. She smells like sweat and salt and something sweeter, and it lights me up instead of calming me down. Because the truth is, the tenderness cracked me open, and now every wall I’ve ever built is rubble. What’s left is hunger.When she shifts against me, the soft brush of her thigh skimming my still-hard cock, the last thread of restraint snaps.I roll her beneath me, caging her body with mine before she can breathe a question, and kiss her like a starving man. It’s rough, teeth and tongue, and she gasps against my mouth, but then she’s clawing at me, yanking me closer, answering me with that same wild need.“Marcus,” she pants, nails dragging down my back. “What-”“Can’t stop.” My voice is ragged, low. “I’ve waited so long.” I fist a hand in her hair, tilt her head back, and take her throat

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