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I swallow hard and let my own hand drift, rubbing slow circles over her back, pressing her tighter against me. The rhythm of her breath, the weight of her pressed against me… Fuck, this is nice. Real damn nice. My neighbor, Sable, in my bed, in my arms. Even after every stammer, every dumbfuck thing I tripped over—she’s still here.

She lets out a soft groan and stretches lazily, and in less than a blink she’s on her feet, hair falling forward over her bare skin while she scoops up her clothes from the floor.

Panic slices through my chest. “Wait—” My voice cracks. “You’re leaving?”

“Yeah.” She glances over her shoulder, bra dangling from one hand, brow furrowed. “Why?”

I push up onto my elbows, heart ricocheting against my ribs. “I thought… maybe you’d want to stay?”

She hooks the bra into place, then slips her shirt over her head. “And what? Watch you unpack the rest of your boxes tomorrow?” she says with a slight grin.

Heat floods my face. “No, I mean—I just—fuck, I don’t know.” I drag a hand through my hair, tugging hard at the roots. “I just don’t want you to go yet.”

“You’ll live,” she says, tugging the fabric down over her stomach. “I’ve got breakfast with friends early, too. It’s not a big deal.”

But it is. It’s huge.

The words rip out before I can swallow them. “It’s kind of a big deal to me.”

That makes her pause for a breath. She studies me, head tipped, expression completely unreadable. Is she going to laugh at me? Roll her eyes? Tell me I’m stupid and to grow up?

“You’ll see me again, Noah,” she says. “I didn’t climb on top of you to just disappear. Relax.”

The tight coil in my chest unspools too fast, leaving me dizzy with relief. “Right. Yeah. Okay.” I nod frantically. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to⁠—”

“Don’t apologize.” She cuts me off, tugging her sweats back on. “You were really good. Really fucking good. And I live a few doors down. Can’t exactly do a runner, can I?”

“No, I—uh—I suppose not. I—fuck.” The words skid out. “I really enjoyed that, and I’m glad we—this—Jesus, I don’t even know what I’m⁠—”

She stomps over, shutting me up in the fastest way possible. Her mouth crashes onto mine, teeth catching my lip, stealing what’s left of my breath. By the time she pulls back, I’m reeling, lips throbbing, cock hardening all over again.

“See you soon, Noah.”

Then she’s gone. Down the hallway, the front door clicking behind her, leaving me alone in the wreckage. Sheets ruined. Cock aching. Her taste still smeared across my mouth. My brain fried to ash.

Chapter 5

Sable

The elevator dings and spits me out onto the third floor, a yawning graveyard of cubicles already buzzing with keyboards and passive-aggressive sighs. The Monday blues in surround sound.

My brain’s still stuck in bed, my body’s on autopilot, and the only thing keeping me vertical right now is the triple shot drowning in oat milk that I’m clutching like an IV drip.

Work. My great reward for surviving the weekend. Endless emails, cranky clients who want miracles performed in twenty-four hours, deadlines ready to collapse… I work in account coordination if I want to title myself officially—‘herding cats while dousing myself in lighter fluid’ if I want to be honest.

I snake through the maze toward my desk, dodging an intern with three binders stacked taller than his head, and dump myself into my chair. My monitor hums awake, too bright and offensive for this time of morning.

Is it too late to go home, crawl back into bed, and die?

“Morning, sunshine,” comes a voice from the other side of the flimsy partition. Sam. My across-the-cubicle neighbor. Chronic snack hoarder, professional gossip, the only thing aside from caffeine that keeps me upright most weeks. His mop of red curls pops over the divider, a huge grin already gracing his face.

“Don’t antagonize me,” I mutter, almost scalding my tongue with the coffee. “It’s Monday.”

“Which is why I’m brightening your day.” There’s the telltale crinkling of a wrapper, and then the smell of powdered sugar, seconds before a donut dangles in front of my nose.

I swat at it. “Get that away from me.”

He drops it dead center on my keyboard anyway, dusting powder across the keys like ash. I sigh and blow at it half-heartedly, watching sugar scatter through the air.