I kept rolling, Nyxire purring between my thighs like the bike herself was half in love and couldnât wait to deliver me straight to the next poor womanâs doorstep.
Past closed bakeries with their warm little lights still on, practically waving surrender flags like they knew Iâd stroll in and ruin their whole "closed" vibe if I felt like it.
Past boutiques where the mannequins in the dark windows actually twitched their plastic necks a fraction when I rolled byâyeah, even fake bitches short-circuited around me... the valet at that overpriced hotel who straight-up yeeted his key fob across the sidewalk.
Past the art gallery where the front glass caught my reflection and just... held it. Longer than any sane pane of glass had any goddamn right to.
Like the universe itself needed a victory lap and wasnât even pretending to be subtle about it.
I grinned. Couldnât help it. Shit was too funny.
An old lady walking her tiny dog under the next streetlamp froze mid-step like sheâd spotted the Second Coming in leather. She stared at me the way people look at lottery tickets that just hitâslow, delighted, a little smug like sheâd been manifesting this exact moment since the Clinton administration.
I smiled back, tipped my head the exact right amount of
youâre welcome, maâam
. She tipped hers right back, all grave and regal.
Her dog let out one single, ecstatic barkâtail helicoptering like it had just won the dog lotteryâthen went right back to sniffing the sidewalk like nothing apocalyptic had happened. Classic.
Nyxire nudged me off the main drag and into the quieter part of town. Streets narrowed like they were trying to get cozy.
Trees thickened up, old and smug.
Houses turned into these massive restored beasts where the paint job probably cost more than most peopleâs yearly salary and the cars in the driveways looked like theyâd sue you for breathing on them.
The boulevard stares finally peeled off my back. Pedestrians thinned to nothing. City noise dropped to a polite little suburban whisper, like even the air was side-eyeing itself and muttering,
Okay, tone it down, sheâs here.
Three more blocks.
Two.
One.
And there it was.
A three-story number set back behind a low wrought-iron fence and a garden so meticulously perfect.
Pale stone facade, tall windows with crisp white trim, front porch rocking two wicker chairs and a tiny table like it was prepped for gossip and emotional damage.
Climbing roses on one wall already blooming out of seasonâbecause apparently even the flowers heard I was coming and decided rules were for losers.
I killed Nyxire at the fence, swung off smooth, looped the reins over the post. She wouldnât wander but the little ritual felt right.
I smoothed my coat, dragged a hand through my hair on pure reflexâdidnât even clock I was doing it till it was already flawless.
Perfection doesnât
audition,
baby.
Then I strolled up the stone path and knocked.
Waited.
Porch light popped on overhead, warm and sudden, like the place itself was blushing.
Footsteps got closer and the lock clicked.
***
Door swung open.
She stopped dead, every nerve in her body slammed on the brakes at once.
Eros looked at the woman in the door and cursed under his breath. She was in her early forties and built like living
sin
âa woman who only grew more
dangerously fuckable
the moment she stopped caring about being
"appropriate."
Her honey-blonde hair twisted up in a loose, messy knot at the nape of her neck, with soft strands escaping to frame her temples and jaw. She had ditched every trace of perfection hours agoâno audience, no performance, just
raw,
unguarded woman.
Soft gray eyes that had laughed enough to stay warm and hurt enough to stay quietly dangerous.
Her cream silk blouse had the top two
buttons undone
, the fabric draping lazily over full, heavy
breasts
while clinging in all the right places, turning the warm hallway light behind her into a goddamn neon confession.
The silk outlined every lush curveâthose ripe,
swaying tits
, the dramatic dip of her waist, and the generous flare of her hipsâlike it was personally invested in her ruin.
Sleeves rolled up to her forearms, the fabric glowing traitorously in the backlighting, highlighting the soft swell of her chest and the way her nipples were already beginning to tighten under the thin material.
Navy lounge pants sat dangerously low on her wide, womanly
hips,
soft cotton hugging the thick, smooth lines of her thighs and the generous curve of her ass like theyâd been poured on the second she got home and forgotten they were basically foreplay. Bare feet, toenails painted a perfect muted rose that somehow made her look even more naked.
A thin gold chain rested at her throat, the little pendant slipping down into the deep, inviting shadow between her breasts like it was hiding on purpose.
Reading glasses shoved up into her hair. A paperback was still clutched loosely against one full hip, her finger jammed between the pages as if some desperate part of her was trying to hold onto "normal evening."
Half-empty glass of red wine sat on the little table just inside, abandoned mid-sip when the knock came.
She had been settled in. Soft. Barefoot. Zero armor. The exact kind of
ripe,
lonely woman who thought she was safe and aloneâcompletely unaware that her body was about to mutiny and throw away every polite, responsible rule sheâd spent decades obeying.
The moment the door opened, his
Eyes
had activated. Desire maps
lit up
across her skin like glowing neon beneath the silk.
Erogenous
zones flared bright and hotâalong the sensitive insides of her thighs, the hollow of her throat, the slow, needy pulse right where that gold chain disappeared between her heavy breasts, and lower, right at the apex of those thick thighs where her body was already beginning to ache and slick.
Her arousal level spiked from zero to
holy-fucking-shit
in the half-second it took for her pupils to blow wide and her knees to forget how to work.
Taboo Aura rolled off him in thick, lazy wavesâ invisible, unstoppableâdissolving every inhibition in its path.
Her body
glitched
hard:
nipples stiffening
into obvious, needy peaks under the traitor silk, a deep flush racing up her chest and throat like it was racing to surrender, her hips tilting forward half an inch on pure instinct before her brain even received the invitation.
Lust Presence hit her next, that heavy,
claiming
energy wrapping around her like warm, possessive hands. She felt owned before heâd even touched her.
She stood there barefoot and wine-soft, pulse hammering visibly at her throat while the silence stretched between them like a warm, heavy palm pressing down on her skin.
No heavy makeupâjust a faint trace of color on her full, soft lips. She didnât need anything else.
Her face was pure,
ripe temptation.
High, elegant cheekbones, soft gray eyes framed by faint laugh lines, and a full, naturally pouty mouth that looked permanently kiss-swollen. At twenty she had been pretty. At thirty she had been stunning. Now, in her early forties, she had ripened into something filthy and exquisite and she hit like a filthy
confession.
She looked like elegant sin aged to perfection... and right now she was standing barefoot in silk, one heartbeat away from being utterly ruined.
She had opened the door expecting a neighbor, a late delivery, or a mistake.
Instead, she was staring at a
god
on her front porch.
Her mouth
partedânot
to speak, but simply to breathe.
Her lungs had momentarily forgotten their only job. Her gaze traveled slowly upward: polished shoes, tailored khaki trousers that did nothing to hide the powerful lines of his thighs, a crisp linen shirt and dark coat, and finally that faceâsharp, impossibly beautiful, dangerously refined.
A face that belonged to a teenager who could not possibly be a teenager, carrying himself with the
quiet authority
of a man twice his age and radiating a presence she had only ever read about in the secret books she hid from her book club.
Behind him, her eyes caught on
Nyxire
âthe enormous white stallion standing calmly at her fence, her mane flowing in a breeze that wasnât there, watching the house with ancient, dark eyes that held something older than language.
And deep in the quietest chamber of her
reading-chair heart
âthe part that had secretly devoured
romantasy novels
and
fae court
epics and stories of
dark princes
descending from godrealms to claim the one woman they had searched for across lifetimesâsomething stirred and woke up hungry.
A Prince.
That was the only word her mind could offer. Not a man. Not a boy. Not a visitor.
A Prince.
From somewhere that wasnât quite this world.
Dressed in simple clothes that somehow made his royalty more devastating than any crown.
Standing on her porch in the lamplight with the most beautiful horse she had ever seen waiting behind him, radiating the impossible stillness of something that had arrived exactly where it intended to be... and was now waiting for her to catch up.
Eros
smiled.
It was a small, gentle smile. The kind you give someone youâre about to unmakeâslowly, thoroughly, and with exquisite care.
Then he inclined his head in a simple, elegant greetingâa slight bow of acknowledgment, the gesture of a man who had been taught perfect manners by women who had loved him enough to demand them.
His voice, when it finally came, was low, warm, and laced with
Whisper of Sin
âeach word sliding under her skin like velvet and smoke.
"Good evening,"
he said softly, the sound curling straight between her thighs.
Her breath hitched and her body answered before her mind could even form a replyâher thighs pressing together instinctively, a fresh rush of wet heat blooming low in her belly as every taboo, forbidden instinct sheâd buried for years suddenly roared to life and screamed the same thing:
Fuck me. Now.