Maya's POV"DESIGNER EXPOSES SISTER'S BETRAYAL: The Truth Behind 'Eden'"The words blurred as I stared at James' phone screen. Behind Fiona's perfectly orchestrated tears, I could see my sketches - the raw, unfinished versions of what would become "Eden." Drafts I'd left scattered across my bed that day, right before everything went dark."You okay?" James' voice seemed to come from far away. "You look like you've seen a ghost.""I need to make a call." My voice sounded steadier than I felt. "Would you excuse me for a moment?"I barely registered his concerned nod as I stepped into what could have been my new kitchen. My fingers shook slightly as I dialed Olivia."Please tell me you're seeing this." The words tumbled out before she could speak."I am. Maya, listen - Fiona's name isn't anywhere in the competition records. I've checked three times. She never even submitted an entry."Something cold settled in my stomach. "She doesn't want to win. She wants to make sure I lose.""Maya-"
Maya's POVIt's funny how spaces can change overnight. The same office that had buzzed with competition excitement yesterday now felt like a minefield of whispers. Every conversation died as I passed, replaced by the heavy silence of people trying too hard to look busy."...can't believe they're sisters...""...guess that explains the interview...""...heard she and the CEO..."The fragments followed me down the corridor. I kept my steps measured, my spine straight. The morning light caught on my design tablet, and I held it like a shield as I made my way to my desk."Did you see the livestream?" Sarah from marketing didn't even try to lower her voice. "The poor sister, crying like that. Makes you wonder what really happened.""Well, you know how she got this job." Claire's response carried just far enough. "The CEO personally-""Stop." I hadn't meant to speak, but suddenly the words were there, cutting through the whispers. Heads turned - some guilty, some curious, some already deci
Daniel’s POVThe scotch trembled against my fingertips as I rewatched the press conference footage. My empty chair in the background spoke volumes - a visible gap in the carefully crafted image we'd built. Amateur mistake, leaving Fiona to flounder alone."What were you thinking?" I kept my voice measured, the same tone I used in board meetings when someone had spectacularly failed. "Did you even consider the implications before staging this little performance?"Fiona perched on my office sofa, her designer dress wrinkled from hours of damage control meetings. "Danny, I was just trying to-""To what?" Ice clinked as I set the glass down. "If it had been any other designer, we could have handled this. Money talks. NDAs exist for a reason." I studied her tear-streaked face, seeing it clearly for the first time. "But Maya? You chose to publicly attack the one person whose silence we actually needed?""I thought-""No." I kept my voice soft, final. "You didn't think. You acted on emotion,
Maya's POVI felt Daniel's presence behind me in the hallway, heavy as storm clouds. For once, I didn't turn around. Let him watch my back, for a change. The box in my arms - filled with design journals and old sketches - felt like armor against his silence.Three years of marriage, and only now did I understand what real power felt like: the ability to walk away. Each breath came easier than the last, like my lungs were finally remembering how to work properly.My shoes whispered against hardwood floors that had never felt like home. Each step carried me further from the girl who used to flinch at raised voices, closer to someone new. Someone real. I passed the living room where we'd hosted countless dinner parties, the kitchen where I'd learned to make myself small, the study where he'd locked away my designs. Memories ghosted through the halls, but they felt distant now, like watching scenes from someone else's life.Thunder rolled outside as I reached the front door. Through sheet
MayaThe key clicked in the lock, and I pushed the door open with my hip, balancing a box labeled "Kitchen Shit" in my arms. The apartment smelled of fresh paint and new beginnings."Home sweet home," I murmured to myself, setting the box down on the bare hardwood floor.The space wasn't much—a modest one-bedroom with high ceilings and windows that actually opened—but it was mine. No marble countertops. No designer furniture. No husband dictating which corner I could exist in. Just four walls that didn't feel like they were closing in on me."Is that the last one?" Olivia called from the kitchen, where she was unpacking my mismatched collection of mugs and plates."Two more in the car." I stretched, feeling the satisfying pop in my lower back. "Who knew freedom would be so fucking heavy?"Olivia appeared in the doorway, wiping her hands on her jeans. Her usually perfect hair was pulled into a messy ponytail, and she'd swapped her Thorne Designs blazer for an old t-shirt. "Worth every p
I yawned as the elevator climbed to my floor, my body heavy with exhaustion after a long day at Thorne Designs. Two weeks into my new job, and I was still getting used to the rhythm of actual work—meetings that mattered, deadlines that weren't arbitrary punishments, colleagues who valued my input. Freedom was fucking exhausting, but in the best possible way.My thoughts drifted to this morning's awkward encounter in the elevator. Emma, the head designer, had asked about my collection concepts while three other designers pretended not to listen. I could feel their eyes on me, assessing, wondering. The whispers had followed me all day—hushed conversations that died the moment I walked into a room."That's her... Daniel Russo's wife...""I heard he locked her up...""Alex hired her personally..."That last one stung the most. I'd earned this position, dammit. My fingers had been permanently stained with graphite for days before my interview, perfecting every design in my portfolio. But to
I made my way carefully through the wreckage, avoiding stepping on broken glass and torn fabric. Olivia kept talking, her voice a lifeline as I cataloged the damage. The bathroom mirror was shattered. My bed had been stripped, the mattress slashed. Even the cheap set of plates I'd bought at a discount store had been smashed against the kitchen floor.A knock at the door made me jump."That's probably the police," I told Olivia, making my way back to the entrance.But it wasn't the police.Alex stood in the hallway, concern etched across his features, his normally perfect suit slightly rumpled as if he'd rushed over. For a moment, we just stared at each other."Olivia called me," he said finally, answering my unspoken question.I pressed the phone back to my ear. "You called Alex?""Of course I did." Olivia's voice was unapologetic. "You need someone there now, not in forty minutes when I can fight through traffic. Plus, he's got resources."“You didn’t think to tell me?”Behind Alex, t
Alex stood by the door, watching me with an unreadable expression. "You shouldn't stay here tonight.""I'm not leaving." The words came out harsher than intended. "This is my home.""Maya..." His voice softened. "The locks are compromised. The place is a mess. At least let me call someone to secure the door properly."I sighed, looking around at the devastation. He was right, but the thought of leaving—of letting Daniel win—made my blood boil."Fine. Call someone for the locks. But I'm staying."His lips pressed into a thin line, but he nodded, pulling out his phone. While he arranged for an emergency locksmith, I began picking up the larger pieces of debris, needing to do something with my hands. I gathered the torn pages of my journals, carefully stacking what remained. Some designs could be salvaged. Others were gone forever.After he finished his call, Alex hesitated, then removed his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves. "Where do you want to start?"I blinked at him, surprised.
“Come here.”"I've been thinking about this for the last hour," he admitted, fingers already working at the button of my jeans. "You, just like this."I rocked against his hardened cock already evident beneath me. "You were supposed to be working.""Not with you biting your lip every time you read something challenging." His hands slipped inside my jeans, panties giving way, immediately finding my pussy like it was normal. "It's distracting.""Sorry," I said, with a slight shiver, but I wasn’t sorry at all."No, you're not." He squeezed, fingers digging into flesh in a way that made me gasp. "But you will be. Maya"The Mention of my name made something break loos
The rest of the morning passed in a strangely comfortable rhythm. I showered while he took calls in the living room. When I came out, hair still damp, he was back in full CEO mode—laptop open, phone pressed to his ear, focused and professional.I settled at the dining table with my own laptop, diving into the foundation emails. Across from me, Alex argued with someone about supply chain issues, his voice firm but reasonable. It should have been awkward, this domesticity. Instead, it felt oddly natural.Around noon, he closed his laptop and stretched. I tried not to stare at the strip of skin exposed as his shirt rode up, but failed miserably. He caught me looking and smiled, slow and deliberate."Are you hungry?" he asked."Starving." I hadn't eaten since Troy&rsqu
I woke to the smell of coffee and unfamiliar sounds in my kitchen. For a disorienting second, panic flared—someone was in my house—until the memory returned. Alex. Beach. Car. Couch. Bed. Floor at some point. Then bed again.My body ached in ways both foreign and familiar. My pussy was raw and swollen from fucking all night. It felt good. We had fucked again even after Alex came in me. I stopped at that thought. Alex had cummed in me multiple times last night. The thought of it somehow made my pussy ache again, I could feel it getting moist again. I snapped. Shit. I would need to sort that out later —getting backup.I stretched, taking inventory of what Alex had done to me. Purple marks dotted my inner thighs. Finger-shaped bruises colored my hips w
He pushed inside, one long, slow thrust that made me gasp. The sensation was different without the condom—It was warm. The feeling of his warm cock against the wall of my pussy made me squirm. I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him deeper, urging him on."Fuck, Maya," he groaned, holding still for a moment. "You feel—""I know," I cut him off. "Move."“Fuck me!”He did, setting a pace that had me digging my nails into his shoulders. He wasn’t holding back this time like he had done initially on the beach. Each thrust hit somehow hit that sweet spot inside me that made the pleasure build up.“Go harder Alex!” I moaned, “Please don’t stop. Fuck me!”
The drive back to my apartment was torture. Good torture, but torture nonetheless. Every red light felt like it lasted an hour. Alex's hand rested high on my thigh, his thumb tracing small circles that made it nearly impossible to focus on the road."You're going to make me crash," I muttered as his fingers inched higher, slipping beneath the edge of my underwear."Then drive faster," he replied, voice rough in a way I'd never heard from him before.He didn't stop. His fingers slid lower, finding me still wet from the beach. I gasped, my foot instinctively pressing harder on the accelerator as he stroked me."Alex," I warned, gripping the steering wheel so tight my knuckles went white. "This isn't—""Keep your eyes on the road," he instructed, his other hand moving to my breast, thumb circling my nipple through my shirt.The speedometer crept higher as his fingers moved faster between my legs. My vision blurred at the edges, body torn between focusing on driving and surrendering to th
He kissed me with an urgency that matched my own, hands moving beneath my t-shirt to find skin. His palms were callused and warm against my ribs as they moved upward, thumbs brushing the undersides of my breasts. I arched into the touch, impatient for more.We were still awkwardly positioned against the post, and my shoulder blade dug painfully into the weathered wood. "Not here," I said against his mouth.He immediately stepped back, misunderstanding. "We can go—""No, I mean, not against this post. It's digging into my back." I took his hand, led him away from the post to where a dune created some shelter from the wind. I pulled him down with me onto the sand.The cold immediately seeped through my jeans, but the discomfort seemed irrelevant compared to the heat
I drove until the highway signs thinned out and the lights from the city faded in my rearview mirror. Alex didn't ask where we were going. He just sat silently, occasionally glancing at my profile, his fingers tapping a pattern on his knee that I couldn't decode.The turnoff appeared sooner than I'd expected—a narrow road that curved toward the coast. I'd passed it hundreds of times over the years, always thinking vaguely about stopping someday. Tonight, I finally did."We're trespassing," Alex said as I pulled into the darkened parking lot and cut the engine. A faded sign near the entrance clearly stated "Beach Closed After Sunset.""Are you going to report me?" I grabbed my jacket from the back seat."Just making an observation." There was something in his voice
The conversation drifted to other aspects of the launch—the press coverage, the surprising industry connections, the unexpected support from Giuseppe."I still can't believe he showed up in person," Olivia said. "His assistant told me last week he wasn't leaving the mansion.""The Kingstons' arrival seemed to energize him." I remembered Giuseppe's face when my mother approached him, the cold smile he'd given her. "I think he enjoyed watching them squirm.""Speaking of watching people squirm," Troy said, a mischievous glint in his eye, "let's talk about that moment at the glass station.""Let's not," I replied immediately."What moment?" Olivia asked."Oh you certainly haven't been paying attention. Design Weekly captured Maya giving Alex a very... hands-on demonstration." Troy pulled out his phone, scrolling through photos. "Look at this."He held up his screen, showing a photo of me standing behind Alex at the workbench, my arms wrapped around him. The picture looked like soft-core p
MayaI kicked my heels off the second my apartment door closed behind me. My aching feet sank into the carpet, and I let out an involuntary groan of relief. After twelve hours at the foundation launch, even breathing without a smile plastered on my face felt like luxury.The apartment was dark and quiet. I didn't bother with the lights, just dropped my bag on the counter and stood for a moment in the stillness. My place still had boxes stacked in corners and bare walls I hadn't gotten around to decorating. After Daniel had trashed my place, I had barely done anything with it. And now with everything going, I barely had the time.I peeled off my earrings and headed for the shower when my phone buzzed. Sarah's face appeared on the screen, and I flopped onto the couch to answer."I look like hell, just warning you," I said.Sarah's face appeared, hair piled messily on top of her head, glasses sliding down her nose. "You're alive! How was it?""Exhausting. Just got home.""Shit, sorry. I