House Rules – {3}

ANNELIESE POVI slept in the collar.Madame had not told me to remove it, and I was too afraid of choosing wrong to take it off myself. All night the soft leather sat against my throat like a quiet hand. Every time I swallowed I felt it. Every time I turned over in the narrow bed the weight of it reminded me that I no longer belonged only to myself.At five-twenty I was already awake.I washed, dressed in the full uniform, and checked the mirror twice. The collar was hidden beneath the high neck of the dress, but I knew it was there. My ass still felt warm from the night before. When I walked, the fabric of my underwear brushed skin that remained sensitive. The memory of her hand between my legs while she calmly turned pages made my face heat all over again.At five-fifty-eight I stood outside the study.The door opened at six exactly.Madame Crowe looked me over in silence. Today she wore a black pencil skirt and a blouse the color of bone. Her hair was twisted up. A thin silver brac

Dernière mise à jour : 2026-10-13

House Rules – {4}

ANNELIESE POVI woke to the sound of her stirring.For a moment I did not remember where I was. Then the collar pressed against my throat when I swallowed, and the firm cushion under my hip brought everything back. I was on the floor at the foot of Madame Crowe’s bed. Naked. Owned. Still aching between my legs from the night before.“Up,” she said. Her voice was calm, slightly rough from sleep. “Kneel.”I moved into position on the carpet, hands behind my back, eyes lowered. She sat on the edge of the bed in her black robe and studied me while she tied the belt. Morning light filtered through the curtains and caught the silver bracelet on her wrist.“How did you sleep?”“Well enough, Madame.”“Truth.”“I kept waking up. I was aware of the collar. And of you.”She nodded once, as if that answer pleased her.“Bathroom. You have four minutes. Then return and present.”I rose, used the en-suite as quickly as dignity allowed, and came back to kneel in the same spot. She had placed several

Dernière mise à jour : 2026-10-13

Office Hours –{1}

KEIRA POVI hated Professor Enzo Varga the way some people hated the sound of their own alarm.It wasn’t a simple dislike. It was personal. Chemical. The kind of irritation that lived under my skin and flared every time he walked into Lecture Hall B with that same unhurried confidence, sleeves already rolled to the forearms, dark hair slightly disordered like he’d just run his hands through it while thinking about something more important than any of us. Forty years old and somehow more magnetic than half the guys my age who still thought a gym selfie counted as a personality.He was brilliant. That was part of the problem. He taught advanced narrative theory like he was bored by how easy it was for him, and he had a habit of looking at students like he was already three steps ahead of whatever mediocre point they were about to make. Including me.Especially me.“Miss Calder,” he said on the third week of term, not even looking up from the essay he’d red-penned into extinction. “This

Dernière mise à jour : 2026-10-18

Office Hours –{2}

KEIRA POVI changed outfits three times before Monday.That fact alone made me want to slap myself. This was not a date. This was not a seduction. This was a mandatory academic meeting with a man I actively despised who also happened to live rent-free in my fantasies like a disease I couldn’t medicate away.I settled on black jeans, a fitted grey sweater, and boots. Nothing that looked like effort. Everything that still made me feel armored. My hair went up, then down, then up again. I left it down.The humanities building always smelled like dust and old ambition. By the time I reached the fourth floor my palms were damp. I wiped them on my jeans, knocked once, and heard his voice through the door.“Come in.”Enzo Varga’s office looked the same as before—books, rain-streaked window, that spiteful plant—but the air felt different. Or maybe I did. He was behind the desk in a black shirt with the sleeves rolled, pen between his fingers, my revised pages already printed and annotated in

Dernière mise à jour : 2026-10-18

Office Hours – {3}

KEIRA POVI didn’t sleep properly Tuesday night.Every time I closed my eyes I was back in his office with his hand in my hair and his mouth almost on mine. The admission sat in my chest like something I’d swallowed wrong. *Both. I went home furious. And I touched myself thinking about your voice.* I’d said it out loud. To him. And he’d looked at me like he wanted to ruin us both for it.Wednesday arrived anyway.I spent the morning pretending to be a functional person. Coffee. Notes I didn’t read. A seminar I barely heard. By four o’clock my nerves were scraped raw. I wore the same black jeans as before and a dark green sweater that made me feel less exposed than I was. My hair was down. My mouth was dry.His office door was ajar.I knocked once.“Come in.”I stepped inside and closed the door behind me without being asked. Enzo was standing at the window this time, not behind the desk, arms crossed, looking at the rain like it had personally offended him. When he turned, the express

Dernière mise à jour : 2026-10-22

Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 51 - Chapitre 55

House Rules – {3}

House Rules – {4}

Office Hours –{1}

Office Hours –{2}

Office Hours – {3}