All Chapters of LUST AND ECSTASY; SPICY EROTICA COLLECTIONS : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The Final ExamIVY'S POV With the issue of Ava and Professor Blake still hanging, I couldn't exactly concentrate throughout the week and now, it was already the morning of the final exam for "The Philosophy of Power”. I walked into the grand lecture hall, my footsteps swallowed by the soft murmur of two hundred students frantically flipping through their notes.I didn't look like the girl who had started this semester. I was wearing a black turtleneck and a tailored skirt, my hair sleek and pinned back. I had more confidence now, than I had before.I took my seat in the third row. A few moments later, I felt a presence behind me. I didn't have to turn around to know it was Ava. She sat directly behind me, her silence still weighing heavily on me. We hadn't spoken since my confession, but I could feel her eyes on the back of my neck—judgmental, grieving, and hyper-aware.Then, the side door opened.Nathan walked in. He wasn't the man who had held me on his office floor a week ago. He

To Say I Love You (The Finale)IVY'S POV The return to the university felt like crossing back over a border from a high-stakes dream into a reality that had become too small for us. The stone gargoyles of the library and the familiar, damp smell of old paper and wet pavement should have felt like home, but after the salt-sprayed cliffs of the Hamptons, everything felt muted.The semester had officially ended, but the campus was still buzzing with students. I walked through the quad toward the faculty wing more confidently now. I wasn't carrying a backpack anymore. I carried a leather briefcase, a graduation gift from Nathan that cost more than my father’s old car.Ava was waiting for me near the fountain. She looked at me—really looked at me—for the first time since she’d fled the hallway during the "Audit." She saw the way I carried myself, the subtle shift in my posture that screamed Sterling influence."You're still here," she said, her voice lacking its usual bite. "I thought for

Echoes Across The PoolRILEYThe following night, the house felt even more suffocating than yesterday. My mother and David were in the study, their muffled laughter and the clinking of ice cubes serving as a soundtrack to my isolation. I couldn’t sit in my room anymore; the four walls felt like they were closing in on me.“This is annoying,” I muttered to myself.I grabbed a thin hoodie and slipped out the back doors. The air outside was crisp, carrying the scent of cut grass and expensive mulch. The estate’s infinity pool looked dark under the moonlight. I walked to the edge, the heels of my sneakers clicking on the stone pavers, and stared into the water.This was the life my mother had won. A life of quiet surfaces and deep, hidden depths. I felt like a leaf that had fallen into the pool—drifting, out of place, waiting to be sucked into the filter and forgotten."It’s a bit late for a swim, don't you think?"I didn't even have to turn around to know who it was. That voice—the low,

Crack In The MaskRILEYThe sun was blindingly bright on the terrace the next morning, but the warmth did nothing to calm my nerves. David had insisted on a formal brunch to "properly celebrate" the first full week of our blended family. When David has announced a family brunch, I wanted to call in sick but that would make my mother beyond worried. I didn't want her to panic over my health when the only problem was having to live in the same space as that jerk.“Can my life get any worse?” I let out a sigh.The table was draped in white linen, topped with crystal bowls of fresh fruit, smoked salmon, and mimosas that sparkled like liquid gold. It was a picture-perfect scene of domestic bliss, except for the fact that I felt like I was sitting on a live wire.Across from me, Ethan looked disgustingly composed. He was wearing a crisp polo shirt and his hair styled. He reached for the coffee carafe with a steady hand, a contrast to my own, which were hidden beneath the table, twisting the

The Morning AfterRILEYThe sunlight in the breakfast nook was too bright and too cheerful for the way I was feeling.I sat at the glass-topped table, clutching a mug of coffee as if it were the only thing keeping me upright. My skin still felt sensitized, my body refusing to forget how it felt with Ethan being so close to me. I had scrubbed myself raw in the shower, trying to wash off the scent of bourbon and the memory of his hand slamming against the marble, but the feeling remained."The gala was a resounding success, don't you think, David?" my mom said, her voice light and bubbly. She looked radiant in a silk robe, leaning over to kiss David’s cheek as she set a platter of eggs on the table."Brilliant," David agreed, not looking up from his tablet. "The donors were impressed. Even Sarah’s new friend—what was his name? Liam?—his father seemed quite taken with our little 'merger.'"I nearly choked on my coffee. Merger. That’s what we were? A corporate restructuring of a family.E