“How do you want to play it? Blindfolded with a tie, or hands tied?”
Lily Hargrove braced both hands against the floor-to-ceiling window. Her white teeth caught her lower lip, leaving a row of tiny marks on those lush red lips. Her voice came out soft and trembling.
“B-Blindfold me.”
A wave of scorching breath brushed past her ear. Behind her, the man’s hard, solid chest pressed up against her back.
His pale, slender fingers held a black tie. His voice was rough and low as he leaned close to her ear, coaxing, teasing, half comforting and half setting her on fire.
“Kids make either-or choices. Baby, you’re grown now. You can have both.”
The black tie slipped over her eyes, and in an instant, everything around her vanished. With her sight taken away, every other sense blew wide open, sharp to the point of madness.
He was wild like a wolf...
Outside the window, snow drifted down from the pitch-black sky in soft, swirling flurries. Norvalla welcomed its first snowfall of the year.
The snow kept falling, from dusk to dawn, dressing the whole world in silver and white, like some unreal fairy tale come to life.
He sat in the chair, and she sat on his lap. He held her in his arms as they watched the snow by the window.
“Baby, promise me. We stay together forever. No breakup. Ever.”
“Mhm. Never breaking up.”
—
Five years later.
Lily Hargrove’s soft body was half-buried in the blankets. The thin strap of her slip dress had slid from her shoulder down to her elbow, exposing her fair, smooth skin. She was drenched in sweat, both hands clutching the bedsheet tight, toes curled up.
Then her phone suddenly started ringing and jolted her awake.
Her best friend Chloe Ashford said, “Hey, babe, you up yet?”
Lily’s voice was dry, but somehow still carried that faint, lazy sweetness. “Not yet.”
“Whoa—hold up. That does not sound right.”
Chloe Ashford caught the weirdness right away. "If I didn’t know you were single, with that voice of yours, I’d seriously think you spent last night going all out with some guy."
Lily Hargrove reached to hang up, but she was a second too slow. Chloe’s voice blasted through the phone like it had its own speaker system.
"Holy crap! Lily Hargrove, you had another sex dream, didn’t you?!"
Okay, fine. Nailed it again.
Lily said flatly, "Wow. Look at you, being way too smart for your own good."
Chloe let out a ridiculous cackling laugh, like a hen that had just laid an egg. "Bawk bawk, let me do the math here. The guy in your dream was your ex-boyfriend."
Lily rubbed her temple. "You’re at your prettiest when you’re silent."
Chloe clicked her tongue. "What’s the point of just thinking about him? A faraway cure won’t fix immediate thirst. You already broke up, so you can’t exactly have him now, can you?"
Lily: "..."
Chloe worked as a sex-toy designer. Other people had desk lamps, pen holders, notebooks on their desks. Hers? Every kind of adult toy imaginable.
Flashy ones, sleek ones, weird-looking ones—so many it was practically a full-on showroom.
"A real bestie can’t just sit there watching her friend suffer in thirsty mode," Chloe said smugly. "Perfect timing, too. My company just launched a new electric model. Crazy powerful. I’ll give you one for free."
Crazy powerful...
Suspicion flickered across Lily’s eyes.
More powerful than Sebastian Whitfield?
...Yeah, no. Probably not.
Sebastian Whitfield wasn’t just impressive because he came from a family with insane power and status. The real problem was that he himself was already way too exceptional.
Back in school, every single exam, he took first in class, first in grade, first in the whole city.