Lahat ng Kabanata ng Midnight Desires (+19 Erotica collection ): Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 9

Lila Voss turned the deadbolt at 11:47 p.m. The click was a finality she looked forward to every single day. Behind her, the city lights of Lagos bled through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting long, bruised shadows across the hardwood. The glow looked like spilled ink, staining the expensive furniture and the silence of her living room. She was twenty-eight. To the rest of the world, she was a success—a graphic designer with a sharp eye and a list of high-end clients that kept her bank account full and her schedule packed. She spent her daylight hours in a glass-walled office, nodding through briefs, meeting deadlines, and maintaining a version of herself that was composed and professional. But the high-rise overlooking the lagoon was a different world. Once the door was locked, the designer disappeared. Her nights belonged to a craving she couldn’t quite name, something darker than the life she led under the fluorescent lights of her studio. She moved into the bedroom, her

On the third night, he didn't come empty-handed. When he stepped through the balcony door, the city lights behind him seemed to fade into the background, leaving only the shadow of him and the small, dark bundle he held in one hand. Lila’s breath caught in her lungs, a sharp, hitching sound that echoed her skyrocketing heart rate. He didn't say a word as he approached the bed. He simply unfurled the bundle, revealing silk ropes the color of midnight. They looked soft, almost harmless, but the way he handled them told a different story. He moved with the same calm, terrifying efficiency he had shown the nights before. Without asking, without needing to, he began to work. He took her wrists first, the silk cool against her skin as he looped the rope around the heavy wood of the headboard. He didn't pull too tight, but he tied the knots with a permanence that made her stomach flip. Then he moved to the foot of the bed. He took her ankles, his large hands certain and warm against her s

Lila woke to the sound of nothing. The room was flooded with the kind of bright, aggressive sunlight that only exists in Lagos, cutting through the floor-to-ceiling glass in wide, blinding strips. She reached out a hand, expecting to find the heat of a body or the rough texture of a shirt, but the bed beside her was empty. The sheets were cold, the pillows smoothed over as if he had never been there at all. She lay still for a moment, letting her senses catch up with the day. Her body ached in a way that felt like a victory. Her thighs were sore, a deep, muscular fatigue that made every movement feel heavy and deliberate. She felt tender, her skin sensitized from the friction of the night before, and she could still feel the faint, cooling sensation of him leaking from her despite the barrier they had used. It was a physical ghost of his presence. Lila didn't feel violated or afraid. She felt more alive than she had in years. She stretched, arching her back like a cat in the sun, a s

Ava's POV (next morning) The morning light didn’t just enter the bedroom; it took over the space, reflecting off the white marble and glass until I had to squint against the brightness. I sat up in that massive bed, feeling tiny and lost among the silk sheets, my skin still sensitive from the fitful sleep I’d managed to find. I wasn't alone. Damien was already there, standing near the foot of the bed. He looked like he had been awake for hours, perfectly composed in a charcoal suit that looked like it had been molded to his frame. The dark fabric made his shoulders look impossibly broad, almost illegal in their perfection. He didn’t say good morning. He didn’t ask how I’d slept. He simply reached down and laid a single garment on the edge of the mattress. It was a dress, if you could call it that. It was made of white silk, so thin it looked like a layer of fallen snow. There was no lining, no structure, and the back was cut so deep it would end well past the small of my spine. I

The digital chime of the tablet at dawn didn’t startle me this time; I had been awake for an hour, staring at the ceiling and tracing the patterns of shadows as they retreated from the morning light. My body felt heavy, sensitized to the point of pain by the events of the previous day. I reached for the device, my heart already doing that frantic, uneven thud against my ribs. Clause Four: The Companion will reciprocate and initiate acts of intimacy upon the Employer’s request. The words sat there on the screen, a quiet shift in the dynamic that felt more significant than any of the rules that had come before. Up until now, I had been the recipient—the object he moved and molded to his whim. Now, he wanted me to be the hunter. He wanted me to take what I had been craving, but only when he gave the word. It was a different kind of trap, one that required my active participation in my own undoing. I found him in his study. The room was silent except for the faint sound of the ocean th