Chapter 81

Chapter 81 Mia The creep's hand was still on me. His fingers dug into my jeans like he owned the right to touch whatever he wanted. I should have moved. I should have slapped his hand away or screamed or done something. But my body would not listen to my brain. I just sat there on that stool with my drink in front of me and my cheek throbbing and my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat."I asked you a question, sweetheart," he said. His breath was hot and wet against my ear. "You want some company or not?"I opened my mouth to tell him no. To tell him to get lost. But nothing came out. Just air. Just silence. Just me being pathetic and frozen while some drunk old man touched me like I was a piece of meat he found at the grocery store.He squeezed harder. I flinched."Come on now," he said. "Don't be shy. I saw you sitting here all alone. A pretty thing like you shouldn't be by herself at this hour. Let me take care of you.""I said get your hand off me." My voice came

Last Updated : 2026-09-15

Chapter 82

Chapter 82 Mia The smile did not last. It sat there for a second and then the bartender knocked on the doorframe like he was done being nice about it.“I need you two out,” he said. He had a trash bag in one hand and that same tired look from earlier. “Cops might swing back. I don’t want this turning into a second show. Take the kit if you want. Just go.”I did not know her name yet. She closed the first aid kit with one hand and stood up like her arm was not wrapped in gauze that was already spotting red.“We’re going,” she said.My phone lit up in my pocket and I pulled it out. Eight percent. Then seven. Zayne’s name sat at the top of the missed list like it belonged there. I locked the screen so I would not have to look at it.“Your phone is dying,” she said.“I know.”“You have somewhere to go?”I almost laughed. The sound came out wrong. “Do I look like I have somewhere to go?”She did not answer that. She looked at my face instead, at the mark Zayne left, and then she looked a

Last Updated : 2026-09-16

Chapter 83

Chapter 83 Mia She took a turn without using the signal until the last second. “Because you said you wanted to go home and then you sat there like home was not a place you could walk into. Because your phone is dying. Because it is late. That is the whole list.”“That is a long list for someone who said she was not giving a speech.”“That was not a speech. That was an answer. You asked.”I shut my mouth. Then I opened it again because sitting quiet made the slap louder.“I have a boyfriend,” I said.“You mentioned.”“I am not staying with you.”“You are getting a couch until the sun is up or until you decide the street looks better. After that you can go back to the boyfriend. I do not care.”The way she said boyfriend made my teeth hurt. Like it was a word she did not respect and did not need to.“His name is Zayne.”“I did not ask for his name.”“I know you didn’t. I said it anyway.”“Okay.”“He is probably looking for me.”Sloane glanced at the rearview once. “Then we should not

Last Updated : 2026-09-17

Chapter 84

Chapter 84 Mia She stood in the doorway with the key still in her hand and looked at me like I had asked her to recite a prayer she did not believe in.“We are not sleeping together,” she said. Flat. Tired. No pause to make it soft. “You can have the couch. I am going to wash this cut and pass out. That is the entire itinerary.”I waited for the rest. There was no rest.“Say it again.”“I just did.”“Say the first part again.”Sloane’s mouth tightened. “We are not sleeping together. Couch. Cut. Sleep. I am out of ways to say the same three things.”My hands were still in my jacket pockets. I could feel my phone in there, dead and useless, and I could feel the heat in my cheek where Zayne’s hand had been, and I could feel how stupid I sounded asking a stranger to repeat herself on a landing that smelled like old brick and somebody else’s dinner.“Okay,” I said.“Okay.”She pushed the door wider with her good shoulder and went in first. I followed because standing outside felt worse.

Last Updated : 2026-09-18

Chapter 85

Chapter 85 Mia Sloane’s eyes did not soften. “We are not sleeping together.”“Okay.”“You keep saying okay like it is a door you can shut.”“It is a door I can shut.”“Then shut it and go sit on the couch.”I should have. I know that. I can see the second I should have turned around and left the light and the tank top and the ugly cut and the woman who had no right to be this close to a night that already had Zayne in it. I did not turn around.I kissed her.It was short. It was angry. It was my mouth on her mouth because I needed the night to belong to me for one stupid second and I did not have another way to take it back. Her lips were dry. She tasted like tap water and smoke she had not lit in front of me. I pulled off almost as fast as I landed.Sloane’s good hand came up and stopped in the air near my shoulder, not quite on me.“You asked me to say it,” she said.“I know.”“Then what was that.”“I don’t know.”“That is a bad answer.”“It is the only one I have.”She looked at

Last Updated : 2026-09-19

Chapter 86

Chapter 86 Mia She added another when I could take it, still slow, still mean about how slow, and her mouth found my ear.“You can tell me to stop any time.”“I will kill you if you stop.”“That is not a safe word.”“I don’t need a safe word. I need you to shut up and not be gentle about the wrong things.”She listened to that, at least. The pace changed. Not frantic. Just honest. I moved with her because my body had stopped asking my pride for permission. The jeans cut into the back of my knees. The faucet dug into my palm. Her taped arm hovered in the air like a warning she refused to put down. I came like that, ugly and quiet, face in her neck, eyes still open, staring at the chipped paint on the wall behind her head so I would not give the feeling a name.I shook through it and hated how long it lasted. She eased her hand out and I grabbed her wrist without thinking and then let go because that was her cut side and I had almost wrecked the tape I had just put on.“Sorry.”“Stop

Last Updated : 2026-09-20