The next morning, the house was humming. It wasn’t noise exactly—it was energy. A low, smoldering frequency that pulsed through the walls, through the marble floors, through the air like heat rising off pavement. Everyone felt it. But only Maddie controlled it. She…

The morning after Cole, Maddie didn’t wake up in his bed. She didn’t need to. She let herself out while he slept, warm and tangled in the sheets, his breath still heavy from what they’d done. His scent clung to her. The…

The air was thick with the scent of pine, smoke, and sweat. The firepit in the clearing behind the old Elk Ridge Tavern roared tall, crackling and spitting embers into the starlit sky. Cars and trucks were parked haphazardly around…

The house was quiet again. Still. After the charged, almost dangerous heat in the kitchen, it was hard to believe the moment had even happened. But Maddie felt it — in her skin, in her pulse, in the hum between her legs.…

Maddie Demeter changed for dinner. Not because she had to — there was no dress code, no formal expectations — but because she wanted to. And because something inside her, that quiet little flame she knew so well, told her this wasn’t…