The suite had gone full war room mode. Charlotte vanished into her room with the focus of someone preparing to negotiate with me over the price of oxygen. Madison, meanwhile, turned our king-size bed into a battlefield of silk and sequins, three dresses laid out like weapons of mass distraction.
"Which one screams âmysterious European heiressâ without saying âtrying too hardâ?" she asked, holding up a black silk number that probably cost more than a mid-tier Tesla.
"Baby, all of them scream âgoddess.â The real question is which one makes the other wives reconsider their prenups."
I was already in full Eros modeâsix-foot-three of supernatural perfection wrapped in a custom Tom Ford tuxedo that fit like it had been sewn directly onto my enhanced frame. The transformation had become so natural that shifting between Peter and Eros felt like changing clothes.
Supernatural arrogance poured into a Tom Ford tux that fit like God Himself had measured me. The Eros mask was activeâdigitally scrambling me invisible to cameras and facial recognition. I was the kind of problem no billionaire security system could patch.
Madison slipped into the black silk, adding her system veilâsuddenly European royalty en route to a funeral. Elegant. Mysterious. Untouchable. The perfect disguise for a queen about to help me hunt Miamiâs neglected wives like we were casting for
The Real Housewives of Trauma Recovery.
"Charlotte," I called, tightening my cufflinks. "Ready to introduce your business partner to some new clients?"
Her voice floated back, muffled but sharp. "Iâm ready to watch you work. Consider this my field trip in seduction economics."
*
The Maybach slid through Miami Beach like weâd bought naming rights to the city. The Setai rose in front of us, all glass and steel flexing like it was auditioning for a Kanye West Instagram post.
Valets moved like ballerinas who happened to juggle Lamborghinis for tips. Our Maybach joined the lineup of Ferraris, Rolls-Royces, and other overpriced toys, each parked like trophies in a competition to see who could scream "divorce settlement" the loudest.
"Jesus Christ," Charlotte muttered, staring out the tinted windows. "I forgot how over-the-top Miami wealth gets."
"This?" Madison smirked under her veil. "This is foreplay. Wait until you see the actual party."
The elevator ride to the rooftop was pure mythologyâsmooth, silent, glass walls turning the Miami skyline into a glowing circuit board beneath us. Olympus for the vain. Heaven for the insecure.
When the doors slid open, I understood why Amanda chose this venue for her engagement party.
The rooftop glowed like a movie set designed by someone who thought subtlety was a disease. Crystal chandeliers dangling in open air. Champagne towers glimmering under moonlight. Women draped in couture like living art pieces. Men dressed in suits they clearly didnât deserve.
And me?
I wasnât a guest. I was the main event.
The Setai rooftop wasnât just a partyâit was a feeding ground.
Infinity pools mirrored the Miami skyline so perfectly it looked like we were floating above the city on a magic carpet woven from cocaine money. String lights and candles set the mood somewhere between
romantic proposal
and
cult initiation
.
And the women... Jesus Christ.
It wasnât a guest listâit was a reunion special of
D
esperate Housewives: Miami Edition. Designer dresses clung to bodies that were ninety percent personal trainers, ten percent top-shelf plastic surgery, and zero percent satisfied. You could smell the hunger in the air. The kind of hunger that Pilates and green juice couldnât fix.
"ARIA," I thought, sending the ping through our link, "whatâs the damage report tonight?"
"Sixty-three guests. Forty-nine women, fourteen men. Average age: thirty-six. Estimated sexual satisfaction rate: eight percent. Master, you are in a banquet hall of starvation."
This report... I could never get tired of it.
Eight percent. Translation: forty-five women were currently trapped in marriages powered by AMEX and dead bedroom energy. It was like someone handed me a Vegas casino, but all the slot machines paid out orgasms.
I hadnât even stepped fully onto the terrace before the ripple effect started. Conversations stuttered. Womenâs eyes caught me and didnât let go, like my tux was broadcasting in 4K while their husbands were still stuck in dial-upâwomenâs eyes found me and stayed, their attention becoming so focused that their companions had to repeat themselves to regain focus.
Men noticed too, but their reactions were hilariously primal: stiffening shoulders, subtle shifts closer to their wives, the kind of territorial flexing that said,
Honey, donât leave me for that guy,
but with all the authority of a broken pool noodle.
And thenâlike the party gods decided to speedrun my eveningâthe voice.
"Charlotte!"
Margaret Thompson glided through the crowd like she owned itâwhich, in a way, she did. Not with the garishness of new money, but with the easy, lethal confidence of someone whoâd been born into the right name.
Mid-forties, but with a body that made you question the concept of time itself. Face carved like marbleâhigh cheekbones tapering to a jawline that could cut glass, not a line in sight that didnât belong.
Skin that glowed with a warmth that had nothing to do with the Miami heat and everything to do with the limitless wealth she embodied. Eyes dark and knowing, the kind that had spent decades assessing men like me and finding them wanting.
She moved with the fluid grace of a predator, making the crowded parts of the room unconsciously part around her.
She wore a white dress that fit her like a second skin. Clinging to her bodyâemphasizing every sharp contour. The neckline plunged just enough to reveal cleavage that was criminalâfull, firm, the kind that made priests stammer and billionaires sweat.
The fabric hugged her waist, nipped in at her ribs before flaring over hips that were somehow both elegant and power, hinting at the strength beneath. Her legsâlong, toned muskles flexing with each stride beneath the fabric, thighs that promised to close around a man like a vise.
Sheâd kept herself in shape the way Fortune 500 CEOs keep offshore accountsâconsistent, meticulous, and a little bit illegal-looking.
But her
eyesâoh,
fuck meâthe eyes told the real story. Decades of command in boardrooms and charity galas, but behind them: a woman sexually starved so long sheâd forgotten what hope tasted like. Until she saw me.
The shift in her was instant. Margaret Thompson didnât just look at meâshe recognized me. Predators know predators. Except she wasnât prey in that moment; she was the convert walking into church for the first time in years, staring at the altar like salvation just winked at her.
"Mrs. Thompson," I said, voice dialed to that sweet spot between
gentleman
and
let me rearrange your world tonight.
I took her hand, kissed it slowlyâan old-school move, sure, but effective as hell. Her pulse betrayed her, quickening under my lips.
She gasped. Soft, subtle, the kind of sound women made when they accidentally locked eyes with their favorite boybander in 2009.
"Please," she whispered, breath hitching in that delicious way, "call me Margaret. And you must be Charlotteâs... mysterious business partner."
Business partner. If only she knew.
"Eros Desiderion," I said, letting the name roll like Iâd trademarked desire itself. "The pleasure is entirely mine."
And right thereâin the space of a single breathâI watched Margaret Thompson, Miami queen, PTA dominator, and charity-gala assassin, recalibrate her entire worldview around me. Sheâd spent decades around wealth, around power, around men who thought they mattered. But me?
I wasnât in her category. I wasnât in her species.