LOGINWith my fingers gliding across his flesh, I kept contact as I moved around to his back and across the broad expanse between each shoulder, afterward, I ran my fingers in a soft caress over the nape of his neck—God, how I'd always wanted to touch him in this way—and then began making my way over to the opposite shoulder, shortly coming around to his collarbone.
Afterward, with a pivot of my fingertips, and practiced turns of my feet, I came a full one hundred and eighty degrees, facing him again.
As I gazed into his eyes, my breathing increased, and I felt myself give a small pant as I moved my fingers down to his chest. Then, without so much as a pause in my actions, I lowered myself toward the floor.
In a slight squat, I maintained the position for several seconds, moving my hips to the beat before easing my way back up. Once again standing and with slow deliberateness, I let my knees brush his crotch, my breasts hovering near his face.
Seconds later and with a seductive move, I placed my leg on top of his thigh before letting it slide slowly across its width. With only the tips of my toes touching the floor, I slowly lowered my butt onto his spread thighs. The v'd hollow between his thighs cradled my butt, and I laced my arms around his neck, continuing to move, teasing him with my body.
Leaning forward, I allowed my lips to almost brush his, then after a soft exhalation, I backed off: a manipulative move to leave him wanting a taste of the lips I'd offered. Then, as slow as I'd climbed on his lap, I inched my way back off, unwrapping one leg at a time from the back of the chair as I slid with taunting eroticism backward off his lap until I was once again standing between his legs.
Afterward, bending forward, I placed my hands on top of his knees, then moving my face back towards his, I gave him a light brushing of my tongue across his lips, being sure to leave him hungering for more as I withdrew.
Afterward, lowering my body towards the floor again, I moved my face from side to side near his stomach. Sliding my hands to the insides of his thighs, I began working my hands up toward his crotch in a slow caress, only stopping just short of touching the increasing bulge.
Shortly, following the move, I began moving my hands back down, kneading and caressing the bunching and tensing of muscles beneath my fingers as I did. With breath damn near hissing through my lips, I realized how badly I wanted Torin and how badly I wanted to make him want me.
With that clarity, I rose to my feet and stood before him, moving my body in slow rhythmic figure eights. A sexy pout graced my lips as I ran my hands over my breast, down my stomach, then lower still as I gave a light stroke to the sensitive area between my legs.
One stroke, two, before I lifted my arms and reached out, sliding the moisture on my fingers across his lips before withdrawing, I placed my hands against his chest. I could feel the firm pectoral muscles beneath my palms trembling and need raced through me at the knowledge of his arousal.
In a slow, playful action, I gave him a firm shove, reseating him in his chair, as he'd almost come out of it when I'd slid my wet fingers across his lip. A thrill washed through me, for I was doing things I had only ever dreamed of. And with each action, I grew more damp, more aroused. Small expulsions of need escaped my mouth as the growing hunger within me became unbearable.
Torin's hands twitched in his effort to restrain himself from touching. He hadn't so much as laid a finger on me and I was becoming a needy, throbbing mess. I wanted him to touch me. I wanted him to caress my breast, to run his fingers up my thighs until he reached the weeping folds that begged for his touch—to bury those fingers deep within me.
A small hungry hiss of breath escaped my lips as I lowered myself back onto his lap, wanting to make him touch me. Wrapping my legs back around the chair, I kept one hand on his shoulder as I leaned backward. Arching my back, I jutted my breast toward the ceiling, beginning a gentle rocking motion against him.
I rode his erection in slow motion for several seconds, before releasing his shoulder, I leaned all the way back, touching the floor with one hand as I continued to gyrate. Afterward, I brought the other arm back, laying that hand on the floor as well.
My body quaked with the arousal cruising through it, and I damn near exploded when, with nostrils flared and eyes dilated, a groan ripped loose of Torin's throat. Reaching out, he grasped me around the ribs, just below my breast. Then lifting me back into a sitting position, he swooped forward as lips soft, sensuous, and seductive, he grazed them against my own as he wrapped a hand in my hair.
With a jerk, he pulled my mouth hard against his, all the while pumping against me, his erection stroking me through our clothing. Drawing back slightly, voice husky, he breathed, "I want you."
I couldn't control the whimper that escaped my lips in my need as I moaned, "Oh God, Torin."
Raising a hand, he cupped my chin, then lifting my face, he looked into my eyes. After a few seconds of examining them, he growled, "What she give you, Sweetheart?"
Lowering my feet to the floor, I jerked out of his arms, beginning to back up. Pain, embarrassment, and shame washed over me for who I had become, and suddenly seeing myself through his eyes. I gave a shake of my head. "Got no clue."
Climbing to his feet, he gave a slight hiss. Then bending at the waist, he growled, "Fucking, son of a bitch," as he pushed his shoulder into my midsection. Afterward, grabbing me around the thighs, he rose back up. Stomping over to the door, he threw it open, before continuing into the hallway, he headed toward the door at the end of it.
The morning of the wedding felt nothing like I expected. I had imagined nerves. Shaking hands. A stomach that flipped every five seconds. Maybe a rush of panic that made me question every choice that had carried me here. But when sunlight poured through the loft windows and warmed the side of my face, I woke with nothing except a quiet stillness settling into my bones.It felt like standing at the center of a bridge I had been walking toward my entire life.Torin was not beside me. His side of the bed was rumpled and warm, the pillow still carrying the shape of his head. A small folded note sat near my hand.Went to the house early to help set up. I did not want to wake you. I love you. Come when you are ready.I smiled at it like a fool. My heart kicked in a steady, certain rhythm. No cold clamps of fear. No shadows creeping along the edges of my mind. Just warmth blooming outward from the center of my chest.Jess and Tannin were already in the kitchen when I stepped out. Jess had a
The rest of the day passed in that strange, weightless way where everything felt louder and softer at the same time. Like someone had peeled back a layer of silence I didn’t even know I’d been living under.The note and the photo stayed on the counter beside my sketchbook. No one touched them without asking. No one hovered. The space around them felt sacred. Untidy but important.Torin made lunch even though Rook swore he wasn’t hungry and then ate half the pan himself. Tannin complained about needing more sleep and then stayed awake for five more hours just to make sure Reif didn’t disappear on us again. Jess came and went, muttering about paperwork and police incompetence and how none of us better call him past midnight unless someone was literally bleeding. Reif hovered in the corner like he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to belong here but wanted to anyway.Late afternoon sunlight slanted across the loft, turning everything honey-gold. I sat on the floor by the coffee table with my
I must have stood on that balcony for nearly ten minutes before I trusted my legs to move again. The city noise drifted up in warm, steady waves. Car horns. Music from two blocks over. Laughter echoing faintly between buildings. It all felt strangely normal considering something inside me had just shifted in a way I could not name yet.Torin stayed behind me without crowding me. His chest brushed my back now and then when he breathed. His hands rested lightly on my hips as though he wanted to hold me tight but knew I needed space too.“You sure you want to go back inside?” he asked.“Yeah,” I whispered. “I don’t want to hide out here all day.”He kissed the back of my shoulder. “I’m here.”That was enough to get my feet moving.When I stepped inside, the loft felt different. Not bad. Just… heavier in a way that meant everyone in the room knew something had cracked open. Jess stood near the counter wiping crumbs off the surface, a pointless task since there had been no crumbs to begin
The day felt like it wanted to split itself in half. One part humming with the quiet joy of planning a wedding I never thought I would get to have. The other part carrying the heavy shadow of that letter. The handwriting. The truth wrapped inside it like a fuse waiting for a match.Skye wasn’t the only one trying to keep you apart. The words haunted the edges of every moment.I tried to focus on the stack of fabric swatches spread across the table. Jess had found the box tucked behind the bar’s old storage closet. Silk in soft blues. Lace in creamy ivory. A darker piece in a deep wine color that Tannin kept insisting would “look lethal on me in the best possible way”. But every so often my gaze drifted toward the folded letter resting beside my elbow. Torin noticed. He always noticed.He brushed his hand along my back as he passed behind me, his touch slow and grounding. “You want to take a break?” he asked softly.I shook my head. “If I stop, I’ll just start thinking again.”“You ar
~Marlowe~I found Ginger in the guest room sitting cross-legged on the bed, her gray-streaked red hair braided over one shoulder while she folded laundry like she hadn’t spent the last decade traveling the country with Burdock. She looked up the second I stepped into the doorway. Her eyes, warm and sharp all at once, softened in a way that made something inside me loosen.“Come on in, baby,” she said, patting the bed beside her. “You look like someone carrying something heavy.”I sat beside her slowly. The sketchbook trembled just enough in my hands that she noticed. Ginger always noticed.“What’s in there?” she asked gently.I opened it without answering. The photo slid out first—my mother with two toddlers who looked eerily like mirror halves of each other. Me and Rook. The note followed, old and creased and written in handwriting I didn’t recognize.Ginger inhaled sharply the moment she saw it.“You know it,” I whispered.She nodded once. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “I do.”I swallow
I closed my sketchbook slowly. The photo and note tucked inside no longer felt like a wound. They felt like a hinge, something letting an old door finally swing shut.Torin pulled me fully into his arms and held me there. He was warm. Solid. Steady. “You ready to join the chaos?” he asked softly.I nodded. “Yeah,” I said. “I think I am ready for everything now.”He smiled, kissed me once, and stood so he could pull me up with him.As we walked toward the kitchen, I thought of my mother’s letter, the woman she used to be, the girl I used to be, the life I used to have. And then I thought of this one. This home. This love. This strange, beautiful family I had chosen and who had chosen me back.The past finally felt like just that. Past. Tomorrow could be anything. And for once in my life, I wanted to meet it head on.The next morning, the loft hummed in that soft, quiet way it only did when everyone else was still asleep. Or pretending to be. Rook snored loud enough to suggest he had no







