GHOSTS & SECRETS

The words hang between us like something alive, something with teeth, and I watch his face do this complicated thing where it shutters completely, like someone pulled down metal blinds over windows that were just letting in light, and suddenly I'm looking at a stranger instead of the man who made me come apart in the back of his car three hours ago."Do you think you might have fallen in love with me…? I… I'm sorry to ask, pardon me…how unreasonable of me." His voice is different now, flat and slightly controlled in that way that means he's feeling something enormous and refusing to let it show, and my mindl, who was doing cartwheels approximately three seconds ago, freezes mid-cartwheel and slowly backs away.“No…it's not unreasonable c'mon. It's just that I…" I start, but I don't know how to finish because the air in the room has suddenly changed and gone cold and tense and I'm suddenly very aware that I'm standing here wrapped in his duvet wearing nothing underneath while he's look

Last Updated : 2026-05-11

SINISTER REVELATION

Addie’'s already at Bergdorf's when I arrive, perched on one of those ridiculously expensive chairs they put in the designer section, looking like she owns the place in head-to-toe Chanel that she probably doesn't own but wears like she does, and when she sees me her face lights up with that particular brand of mischief that means she's been dying to interrogate me about my life and is about to do so with extreme prejudice."Pookie!" She's on her feet, pulling me into a hug that smells like her signature Dior and expensive coffee and safety. "You look like shit.""Thanks." I pull back, trying to smile. "That's exactly what every girl wants to hear.""I'm serious though." She's studying my face with those sharp golden eyes that miss absolutely nothing. "You've got that whole 'I had an emotional breakthrough at three AM and cried myself to sleep' thing going on. What happened?""Can we shop first and dissect my emotional trauma second?" I ask, already heading toward the Valentino sectio

Last Updated : 2026-05-12

SHE KNOWS

The phone is still buzzing in my hand when Addie rips it away from me, her manicured fingers flying across the screen while I stand there frozen in the middle of Bergdorf's designer section like someone just doused me in ice water, and somewhere in the back of my mind I register that she's calling someone, that her voice has gone sharp and professional in that way it does when she's handling a crisis, but I can't focus on her words because all I can see in my head is that photo of me walking into this store, that message about knowing where I am, where Damian is, where we both are every second of every day, and the implications are slamming into me one after another like waves trying to pull me under.Aurora's watching me right now…She has to be.The photo was taken less than twenty minutes ago, I was wearing this exact outfit…the cream sweater and dark jeans that Damian insisted I buy last week because he said they made my legs look incredible, which made me blush then and makes me w

Last Updated : 2026-05-13

YES, YOU'RE MINE!

Another photo glows through the screen. This one from inside Damian's penthouse, from his bedroom, taken through the window from another building, and it shows me leaning against the wall, my face visible, vulnerable maybe…clearly taken last night after Damian left and I was alone, and underneath it is a message that runs shivers down my spine."Beautiful view. Such a shame you forgot about the security blinds. I've been watching you for weeks, Selene. Every morning when you wake up. Every night when you go to sleep. Every moment you think you're safe in your glass tower. You're not safe sweetheart. You'll never be safe, and when I'm done with you, ohh, Damian will watch you break the same way you watched me lose everything. Sleep well, darling.”My hands are trembling so violently that the phone slips from my fingers and Damian catches it before it hits the floor, his reflexes inhumanly fast, and I'm trying to process what I just read, my body freezing in place. My brain won't cooper

Last Updated : 2026-05-14

THE HUNT BEGINS

"No." The word comes out sharp enough to cut. "Absolutely fucking not." Damian's hand freezes on the door he was about to lock, his eyes narrowing as he takes in my expression, and I can see him shifting into that controlled dangerous mode he goes into when he senses confrontation, but I don't care because I'm done, so completely done with being scared and shuffled around and treated like some fragile thing that needs protecting instead of a grown woman who spent a decade cutting into human hearts without flinching."Selene…" he starts, but I cut him off."Don't." I hold up my hand. "Don't you dare tell me this is for my own good or that you're just trying to keep me safe, because you know what? I'm tired of being safe, I'm tired of running, I'm tired of letting Aurora dictate my entire existence with her cryptic fucking messages and her threats and her surveillance. She's been threatening to destroy me for months!" My voice is rising now and I don't care, don't care if everyone in th

Last Updated : 2026-05-19

OH, THE LENGTHS I'D GO

DAMIEN'S POVSelene's hands are shaking. I notice before she says anything…before she even turns to show me the screen, because I notice everything about her. I have memorized the particular stillness she goes quiet with when she's frightened, the way her breath changes, the almost imperceptible tremor she's too proud to acknowledge. Nine months ago I would have filed that observation away as useful. Now it does something else entirely to me, something I still don't have clean language for.I read Aurora's message over her shoulder.“I see you're home. Windows wide open. How brave. Or how stupid. I guess we'll find out soon.”Something happens in my chest. Not fear, no I don't do fear, haven't since I was fifteen and decided that fear was a luxury I couldn't afford. Something colder than fear…something deliberate. The part of me that built an empire from nothing, that learned very early that the world will take everything you so love if you let it, that part wakes up and goes very, ve

Last Updated : 2026-05-25