The sun was dipping low, casting amber streaks across the horizon, when Maddie received the invitation. She was reclined on a striped lounge chair beside the inn’s saltwater pool, legs glistening from tanning oil, sunglasses perched high, lost in the…

Maddie returned that evening to the seaside suite. Wine glasses were chilled, rose petals scattered across the bedspread, soft music vibrating through the walls. Liana and Mark looked different now—expectant, a tiny tremor of anticipation in their stance. She chose…

The mountain air was thick with summer; woodsmoke curled from Jack’s outdoor firepit, dancing between the trees like ghosts of past lovers. Inside the cabin, the air was even hotter. Evelyn and Elena hadn’t spoken much after the earlier confrontation…

It was late afternoon when the knock came. Jack had just finished sanding down a thick walnut slab for a custom headboard, his shirt long since abandoned in the summer heat. Sweat glistened off his muscled torso, every line of…

Maddie couldn’t stop thinking about it. The greenhouse. The warm, wet air. The press of moss and candlelight. The way Cole had taken his time with her, claimed her in secret, left her aching in all the best ways. Her…