The hallway was silent except for the soft hum of the house's heating system and the distant tick of a the clock. You'd been back in your room for barely ten minutes, the encounter in the alley still burning fresh on your skin—the rain, the rough hands, the brutal fucking that had left you raw and satisfied. Your bodyguard had dropped you off three blocks from the mansion, as always, and you'd crept through the side entrance, praying that the house was asleep.

It wasn't.