Why did he care so much?
My stomach twisted. I didn’t even know her and I fucking hated her. She was a ghost I couldn’t compete with. A shadow I didn’t understand.
He wasmine.And yet, in his head, he still belonged to someone else.
Sleep stole me with his name on my lips, my body humming with the memory of him. Morning came like punishment—sharp, unwelcome, and far too fast.
Valeria stirred beside me, groaning as she sat up and blinked into the low light filtering through the curtains.
“Ugh… Where the fuck…?” she mumbled, holding her head with both hands like it might fall apart.
She looked around the room, then down at herself. “Did we… did we go home with someone? Why the hell does my mouth taste like cat piss?”
She swung her legs off the bed and then suddenly bolted upright, one hand clamped over her mouth. “I’m gonna be sick.”
I followed her to the bathroom door, watching as she dropped to her knees and puked into the toilet. The retching sounds turned my stomach so hard I nearly joined her. After a minute, she flushed, rinsed her mouth, and staggered back toward the hallway.
She paused.
Maksym’s door was slightly open. She peered inside and saw him lying on his stomach across the mattress, shirtless, his back a broad canvas of dark tattoos. One arm was tucked under the pillow, the other stretched loosely along the sheet. His hair was a mess, crushed on one side from sleep, and the muscles of his back shifted faintly with each slow breath. The sight of him like that—made something stir in her expression.
Her eyes widened.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, looking into the room like it held answers. “Please tell me I didn’t screw him. Because I have no memory of anything, and if I fucked that hot bastard and can’t remember it—that’s the cruelest joke the universe has ever played on me.”
Only Valeria could be this thirsty while still half-poisoned. My insides twisted. “No,” I said, voice cold as glass.
She turned to me, blinking.
“No,” I repeated. “This is his place.”
“Wait… this ishim?“ she asked. “The Reaper guy you told me about?”
I nodded. “He found us. Got us out. You don’t remember any of it?”
She rubbed her temples. “It’s all… foggy.”
I swallowed hard. “You were drugged. And they were going to—” I stopped, breath hitching. “It was almost really fucking bad.”
Her expression changed—shame, fear, then disbelief.
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
She leaned against the wall, processing. “So, he just… brought us here? And didn’t…?”
“He didn’t touch you,” I said. “Not like that.”
She frowned at me, studying my face too closely. She knew me too well.
“Not like that?” she repeated. “Kira… did he touchyou?”
I hesitated.
Her eyes widened. She leaned closer, lowering her voice so only I could hear. “Oh my God, Kira. Did you—did you lose your virginity?”
“Yes and no,” I said, the words tumbling out before I could stop them.
