Maddie had drifted between wakefulness and sleep for hours. Ever since she’d shut the door on Vanessa and Graham outside her room, her skin had felt electrified—every nerve ending alive, humming. She’d tried counting breathing exercises. Tried focusing on the…

It was just past noon when Jack heard the familiar sound of tires crunching up the gravel drive. He glanced up from his workbench, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his forearm. Another hot, still summer day…

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…

Maddie Demeter had been turning heads since she was sixteen — long before she realized the full power of her looks. Now, at twenty-two, she’d learned how to lean into it. Not in an obvious way. That wasn’t her style.…