All Chapters of Behind Closed Doors: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Emily’s POV I pressed the phone tight against my ear, my entire body going rigid as Daniel's fingers traced a slow, maddening line up the inside of my bare thigh. "Em? You still there?" Ethan's voice crackled through the speaker again. The rooftop music thumped faintly in the background. "Yeah!" I squeaked, slapping my free hand against Daniel's wrist and trying to shove him away. He didn't budge an inch. "I'm here! Sorry, the— the saleswoman was showing me something." "Oh, okay. So how long do you think you'll be? This rooftop is actually insane. You can see all of Midtown from up here." Daniel's fingers found the sensitive hollow where my thigh met my hip. He pressed down with his thumb, a slow circular pressure that sent a jolt of electricity straight through my core. "I—" My voice cracked. I cleared my throat hard. "I don't know, Ethan. Victoria's list is really long. She wants, um, specific serums and this limited-edition moisturizer that's apparently impossible to find." "

Emily’s POV"Fasten your dress," Daniel said, his voice smooth, even, and infuriatingly calm.He stood near the foot of the king-sized bed in Room 1402, looping a dark silk tie around his collar. Every movement of his hands was deliberate, unhurried, as if we hadn't just spent the last hour breaking every rule that kept our lives intact."Fasten my dress?!" I choked out, my fingers trembling so violently I could barely align the silver buttons down my back. I snatched the heavy Sephora bags off the armchair, the paper handles cutting into my palm. "Daniel, look at my phone! Victoria called me three times! Ethan sent another text now! They're already leaving the rooftop!"Daniel stepped up behind me, his reflection towering over mine in the gold-framed mirror. His long, calloused fingers reached out, taking the back of my dress from my hand and neatly sliding the top two buttons into place. His knuckles brushed the burning hot skin at the base of my neck, lingering for one heavy, posse

Emily’s POVThe heavy front door clicked shut, the sound echoing through the massive, empty foyer like a gunshot. Victoria was officially gone. In a private car to JFK, and then on a nine-hour flight to Paris for the next four weeks.Silence descended over Penthouse 54A. It was heavy, thick, and completely suffocating.Ethan cleared his throat nervously, pulling his hand back from mine on top of the glass table. He looked over at Daniel, his brown eyes darting anxiously toward the head of the table."Uh... Mr. Walker?" Ethan started, his voice dropping an octave. "Is... is everything okay? You've been kind of quiet."Daniel didn't move. He sat motionless in his chair, his long fingers wrapped loosely around his coffee cup. He didn't look angry; he looked completely, terrifyingly calm."Ethan," Daniel said smoothly, his voice dropping into that deep, command-level register that made people instantly freeze. "Doesn't your advanced macroeconomics lecture start at eight o'clock?"Ethan bl

Emily’s POVThe rest of the afternoon passed in a suffocating fog. I couldn't focus on a single lecture. When my final class ended, Ethan was waiting outside the building, asking if we could go on a date or if he could at least drive me home. I just shook my head, completely ignoring his hurt expression as I hurried straight to the curb and slid into the back of a waiting cab.As the taxi crawled through afternoon traffic, Daniel’s text replayed on an endless loop in my mind: Be back at the penthouse by 5:00 PM sharp for your payment.A treacherous, heavy heat flared low in my belly. I knew I should have been terrified, but my traitorous body responded anyway. Imagining his heavy hands pinning me down, taking total control to collect his debt, left me flushed and aching with a desperate, slick anticipation.The cab pulled up to our building at 4:46 PM. My knees felt weak as I stepped out and hurried across the polished marble floor of the ground-level lobby. Reaching the private eleva

Emily’s POVThe morning light streaming into the penthouse lobby felt harsh, completely at odds with the frantic drumming of my heart.Ethan was already standing near the grand marble pillars by eight o’clock sharp, wearing a dark navy sweater and holding two paper cups from the coffee shop down the block. When he saw me step out of the residential hallway, his face lit up with a hopeful, nervous smile."Emily! Hey," he said, stepping forward quickly. He held up one of the cups. "I got your favorite. Vanilla oat milk latte. I thought... well, I thought maybe we could drive to campus together since we couldn’t go on that date yesterday."I stopped a few feet away from him, my hands trembling inside the pockets of my trench coat. My whole body still felt raw from the night before, every nerve ending on edge. I looked at his kind, earnest eyes, and a wave of pure guilt washed over me."Ethan... no," I said softly, keeping my voice low. "Thank you for the coffee, but... we need to talk."