Rumination [h.s]

"Maeve, baby, just give in."
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His fingers trace my jaw slowly, deliberately, like he knows exactly how to undo me. He peppers kisses along my neck, familiar and dangerous, and I hate that my hands still find their way into his brown curls without thinking.

"We can't, you know this. The girls are home an-"

He cuts me off before I can finish, displeasure sharp in the way his mouth crashes into mine, his tongue forcing its way past my lips like my rules don't matter. Like I don't matter.

"You didn't seem to care last time. What changed, baby?" he murmurs against my mouth, like the past is something he can still use against me.

"I really fucking hate you," I breathe, the words pressed to his lips, raw and useless.

"I know," he murmurs back - and that's the part that scares me most.

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Maeve Preece - stripper, dancer, sinner. Call her what you want. She's heard it all before.

Nights at Sapphire, one of New York City's most infamous strip clubs, blur together in a haze of neon lights, sweaty bills, and cheap perfume. Maeve dances, grinds, and sometimes serves drinks - anything to keep her head above water and her rent paid. Her life is built on survival, not dreams.

Until Harry walks in.

What started as obsession - the kind that borders on hate - turns into something far messier. One night together becomes two, then three, and so on, until Maeve realizes the one thing she swore would never happen has already begun: she's falling for him.

But love doesn't come easy when it's tangled in lies and blood.

Because Harry isn't just trouble - he is trouble.
A man with a reputation built on fear: drugs, money, murder, theft, and every sin in between. Exactly the kind of life Maeve promised herself she'd never get dragged into again.

Now, it's too late.
She's already in deep - and the only way out might destroy them both.

What happens next?
Read to find out.
//

EXPLICIT CONTENT WARNING.

Started: 05/18/25.
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