All Chapters of Dangerous Allure: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

18 Chapters

Exposure

Emily Never in all my years had the air bitten so deeply, like winter itself had crawled inside my bones. I stumbled through the door of my room and collapsed onto the edge of the bed, fighting the sobs that were already stinging behind my eyes, turning everything soft and watery. How could Jack do this to me? After everything we’d built, year after year. I’d been so certain he had truly loved me, but the evidence had just shattered that illusion. Barging into that hotel room like a maniac and seeing him with someone else, and he hadn’t even bothered to run after me, to call out an apology. Why did betrayal keep finding me? He wasn’t the first. With the others, I’d told myself it was because the emotional connection never quite matched the physical one. But Jack was my husband, we’d shared so much more than bodies, we’d shared dreams, routines, futures. I’d let myself believe he was my forever. Now that certainty lay in pieces. I pushed myself upright and shuffled to th

Just Like This

Emily I couldn’t breathe properly. Not since the moment Maira’s finger had pressed against my lips. The wine had turned my limbs heavy and my thoughts slippery, but it hadn’t blurred the line between us, not until her mouth was suddenly on mine. Her lips were soft. Softer than I expected. She kissed me like she’d been waiting years to do it, slow and sure, tasting the inside of my lower lip before sliding her tongue against mine. I froze. My hands stayed limp at my sides because I didn’t know where they were supposed to go. This was Maira. My friend who’d seen me cry over bad dates, who’d split late night pizza with me on the floor of this very living room. And now her tongue was in my mouth and my body was answering before my brain could catch up. A small, involuntary sound slipped out of me, embarrassingly needy. She swallowed it, hummed low in her throat, and that vibration traveled straight down my spine. Her hand remained under my blouse, cupping the underside of my breas

Control

Emily I closed the door on Andrea, and the lock clicked like the final nail in a coffin. For a second, everything held still, but then the dam broke. I fell to the floor right there in the entryway, knees to my chest, face buried in my arms. The sobs came hard and ugly, tearing up from somewhere deep I’d forgotten existed. Two years. Two fucking years of lies layered on top of the life we were supposed to be building. The miscarriage he’d reduced to me “falling ill.” The way he’d weaponized my grief to justify finding comfort elsewhere. I cried until my throat burned and my eyes felt raw. Then, somewhere in the middle of the mess, realization hit. It all made sense now. Being weak had gotten me here. Too weak to question the late nights. Too weak to demand transparency when his phone buzzed at 2 a.m. Too weak to finish my master’s because I’d drained my savings, every penny I’d set aside for tuition into his startup dream. I’d told myself it was love, partnership. I’d

New Favorite Flavor

Emily I woke up to the smell of burnt toast and coffee. Sunlight sliced through the half-open blinds, painting stripes across the bed. Jack was already up, humming off-key in the kitchen like nothing had ever been wrong between us. I slipped out of bed, pulled on one of his old T-shirts, and padded downstairs barefoot. He stood at the kitchen in boxers and a wrinkled tee, scraping charred edges off bread with a butter knife. He glanced over his shoulder when he heard me. His face lit up, he flashed me a warm smile, almost boyish. “Morning, beautiful. Last night was… mind-blowing.” Of course the only reason he would make breakfast for me is because of last night’s mind blowing sex. I crossed the room, rose on my toes, and kissed him slow. “Glad you enjoyed it.” He grinned against my mouth, then turned back to the pan. “Toasts. Nothing fancy. Figured we could start the day easy.” I slumped into a chair at the table. Watched him plate the slightly blackened bread, add

Wet Visit

Emily The plane landed with a gentle thud that jolted me back to the present. Jack was already unbuckling, reaching for the overhead bin before the seatbelt sign even dinged off. “I’ve got it, babe,” he said, voice low like I might shatter if he spoke too loud. “You just sit. No lifting. Doctor’s orders, or baby’s orders, whatever.” I smiled up at him. Inside, satisfaction curled warm in my chest. The fake pregnancy was already working its magic. He carried both our bags down the jet bridge, one slung over each shoulder, refusing to let me so much as hold my purse. Perfect. The airport was small, provincial, nothing like our airport. We found a cab easily, the driver nodded when Jack gave the address, and we were off. Jack kept one hand on my knee the whole ride, stroking my belly absently like he was staking claim. I stared out at the passing fields and let my mind run through the plan again, simple and sharp. Expose the cheating to his family, with receipts if needed.

Tension: High

Emily “Well,” he said, “I see you’ve met my dad already.”There were only two times in my life I had been shocked. The first was when I found out Jack had been cheating on me and the second when I experienced what Maria could do with those red plump lips of hers. But this one topped both.I stood rigid to the spot, my ears ringing with the sound of the wind, even as Jack nudged me to shake hands with the devilishly gorgeous man I had for some reason, imagined him calling his father.Did he give the daddy vibe? Yeah. But I imagined it to be more tie me to the bedpost and spank me kind of vibe, not that he was actually someone’s father.“Em, is everything okay?” Jack snaked his arm across my waist, shaking me lightly.“Excuse me, did you say your dad?” I let the words out before I even realized I did. I heard a scoff and peeked up to see whom it was from. At that moment my eyes locked with his for the third time that day and I could swear a ghost of a smirk flashed across his lips.“I

The Game At The Dinner Table

Emily I froze the second I heard the knock, shivering as water dripped from my body onto the floor. My fingers were literally still glistening with my own wetness, and my mind full of filthy images of Zane fucking me senseless. My heart pounded violently against my ribs. Panic and fresh arousal mixed together in my stomach as I scrambled out of the shower. I barely dried off before throwing on the thin silk robe Jack had packed for me. My hands shook while I tied the belt and smoothed it down over my still sensitive skin. My nipples were embarrassingly hard, poking against the silk. I ran my fingers through my wet hair quickly, then hurried to the door and pulled it open just a few inches, hiding most of my flushed body behind it.Zane stood there in the hallway, one hand in his pocket, looking relaxed and unfairly handsome. His dark eyes met mine, I looked away, biting my lips. Like he could see straight through the flimsy robe and the lies I was about to tell.“Dinner’s ready,” h

Stroke Count

EmilyMy heart stopped. The fake pregnancy. That stupid lie I agreed to so I could punish him further. I couldn’t afford to let him say it out loud, especially not with Zane sitting right there, watching me like he could see inside my soul and whatever dirty secret I was hiding.The room started to feel too hot. I let my vision go fuzzy on purpose. I swayed in my chair, then let my body go completely limp, falling sideways into Jack’s arms.“Emily!” Jack’s voice shot up, full of panic.Everything broke loose at once. Chairs fell against the floor. They all spoke above each other, while the panic overwhelmed them. At some point, someone knocked over a glass and water spilled everywhere.“Oh my God, what’s wrong with her?”“Emily, honey, can you hear us?”“Get some cold water!”I kept my eyes shut tight and breathed slow and shallow. My heart was beating so fast it felt like it might jump out of my chest. Hands touched my forehead and my wrist. I heard the worry in their voices and felt

A Loving Husband, A Cheating Wife

Zane’s PovThe morning I discovered my wife's infidelity was the same morning everything changed. Ten years! A decade of going through motions of perfunctory kisses and separate bedrooms justified by her migraines, my snoring and the temperature preferences we could never still reconcile. I'd still tell myself it was normal, that marriages evolved into companionship, that passion was for the young and foolish meanwhile, i was the fool. The text messages on her phone were left carelessly on the kitchen counter while she showered as if she purposely wanted to be caught told a different story. Afternoon hotel rooms and lies about book clubs. I stood there with my coffee growing cold in my hand, reading words from a novel i decided to use to keep me sane in ways to pretend i was devastated but instead, i felt nothing or perhaps i felt the absence of feeling, which could be tagged as the probability of it’s own particular kind of pain.And two weeks later the pain seemed to have grown mor

Shameless

Zane"Zane," I said, introducing myself. I watched her throat work as she swallowed. Such a small thing, that movement of her larynx beneath her skin, but I had found myself fixated on it. On the vulnerability of her throat, the delicacy of her collarbones visible above her shirt's neckline.“This is so wrong, Zane.” I told myself. “This is your son's wife, let it go.”But I'd been letting things go for ten years, letting my marriage die by inches, letting myself become numb, letting life happen to me instead of living it. And now, standing in my farm with my son's arm around a woman who looked at me like I was dangerous and fascinating in equal measure, I didn't want to let anything go.I wanted to take. I needed to claim.The thought that any relationship I wanted to pursue with her would be forbidden, should have horrified me. Instead, it thrilled me in a way nothing had in years.At least that’s what I told myself when I made my way up the stairs, while the rest of my family sat a

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