MasukMAYAThere it was again. That quiet controlling note in her voice. The same one that had shown up last night when she told me I was going to let her take care of me. I should have pushed back. I should have told her I didn’t need a bodyguard. Instead I just stood there watching her choose a black top and dark jeans while my pulse picked up for reasons that had nothing to do with the party.We spent the next couple of hours in a strange half-silence. I tried to do some reading for class and failed. Sienna put on music through her portable speaker, something low and bass-heavy, and scrolled through her phone. Every now and then I caught her looking at me. Each time she held my gaze a second longer than necessary before glancing away. The tension from last night hadn’t gone anywhere. It had just settled into the walls of the room and waited.Around eight we started getting ready. I changed into a black skirt and a top that showed a little more skin than I usually did. When I came out of
MAYAI sat there with her hand still warm on my thigh and her breath still ghosting against the side of my neck and for a few long seconds neither of us moved. The words she had just spoken hung in the air between us. I’m going to take care of you tonight. And you’re going to let me. That’s the first rule. My heart was beating so hard I could feel it in my throat and my eyes were still wet and the ache from the parking lot was still sitting heavy in my chest but under all of it was this sharp new heat that made it hard to think straight.Then Sienna pulled back.She took her hand off my leg like it had never been there and stood up in one smooth motion. The loss of her warmth was immediate. I felt cold where her palm had been and colder still where her mouth had brushed my skin. She walked over to her desk without looking at me and opened her laptop again. The soft glow lit up her face and she started typing like nothing had happened.I stayed frozen on the edge of her bed.“Sienna?”
I shoved the key into the lock harder than I needed to and the door stuck for a second the way it always did when the humidity got bad. My eyes were already burning and my throat felt tight like someone had wrapped a hand around it. The dorm room smelled the same as it always did when I came back late, vanilla body spray and the faint leftover grease from whatever Sienna had ordered earlier, and the soft glow from her desk lamp was the only light on.She was on her bed with her laptop open, legs crossed, wearing that oversized black band shirt that always rode up her thighs. She looked up the second the door opened and her eyes moved over my face once.“You’re early,” she said.I dropped my bag by the desk and kicked my shoes off without answering. My hands were shaking a little. I could still hear his voice in the parking lot saying I was too much and not fun enough in bed and the way he looked at me like he was already bored. I sat down hard on the edge of my own bed and stared at t
Tim. I spent the morning in a closed-door meeting with my lieutenant and a representative from Internal Affairs. The conversation was formal, precise, and exactly as uncomfortable as I had expected. I disclosed the relationship with Celine Sean in clear terms. I stated the timeline. I confirmed that the personal involvement began before the case reached its formal conclusion. I accepted full responsibility for the violation of departmental policy. The lieutenant listened without interruption. When I finished he informed me that an administrative review would be opened, that I would be reassigned from active field duties pending its outcome, and that the final recommendation could range from formal reprimand to requested resignation. I acknowledged each point without argument. There was nothing left to defend. The only remaining task was to walk out of the building and go to the woman I had chosen over the clean version of my career. Celine opened the door before I could knock. Sh
Celine. I woke before sunrise with Tim’s arm still heavy across my waist and the quiet knowledge that the investigation that had bound us together was finally beginning to release its hold. The previous evening’s conversation in the park and the night that followed had shifted something fundamental. He had spoken the words without hesitation. He was choosing me. I had answered with the same certainty. Now the only remaining obstacle was the formal closure of the case itself. I slipped out of bed carefully and showered while he continued to sleep. By the time I returned to the bedroom with coffee he was awake and sitting against the headboard. The sheet rested low across his hips. The sight of him in the early light still sent a low pulse of heat through my body, but the urgency that had defined our earlier encounters had softened into something steadier. “You are up early,” he said. “I could not sleep any longer. The waiting feels different now.” He accepted the coffee I hand
Tim The breakthrough in the case arrived on a Tuesday morning without ceremony. A secondary forensic lab completed a deeper analysis of the partial prints recovered from the storage unit and returned a match to a man named Victor Hale, a former logistics contractor with documented ties to the victim’s less public business dealings. The financial trail that had previously only implicated the gallery’s shell company now extended cleanly to Hale’s accounts. Surveillance footage from a nearby intersection, previously too degraded for use, had been enhanced enough to show a vehicle registered to Hale leaving the area twenty minutes after Celine’s loaner had departed. I read the report twice at my desk before I allowed myself to accept the implications. Celine’s amended statement held. She had been present. She had found the body. She had fled. She had not committed the murder. The evidence now pointed with increasing clarity toward a different man entirely. I called her from my person
LANAThe door clicked open and I spun around so fast my head spun. Dominic stood there, fully dressed now in that same black t-shirt and grey sweatpants, but it didn’t make him any less dangerous. His eyes burned into me, heavy and sure, like he already knew exactly what my body was doing under the
LANAMom helped me carry my suitcase upstairs to my room. It was the same one I always stayed in during summers, nothing fancy but it felt like mine. She hugged me again at the door.“Get settled in, baby. Dinner will be ready soon.” She said and I nodded and closed the door behind her.I pulled ou
LANA Morning light came through the curtains and hit me straight in the face. I lay there for a long minute before I dragged myself out of bed, legs still a little shaky from last night. My pussy felt tender when I walked. Every step reminded me of Dominic’s thick fingers stretching me open, the w
LANAI stared out the cab window as the Miami streets blurred past. The air conditioning was barely working, and my thighs stuck to the fake leather seat. I’d just landed from my dad’s place up north, and this was the start of another summer with Mom. Same routine every year since the divorce. I li







