The Heiress in the Dog Cage

That night, in my tiny Brooklyn apartment, I set the velvet box on my vanity and stared at it until the rain outside turned the windows silver.

The pizza place downstairs blinked red through my curtains. My apartment was small, ordinary, and worlds away from Damian's glass offices, private drivers, and Central Park views.

Yet his lipstick sat under my lamp like a crack in that world had opened just wide enough for me.

I reached for it, then pulled my hand back.

I liked him. Too much.

Because I liked him, I did not want to become someone who used the advantage he had handed me just because I could.

The comments, naturally, had no such restraint.

[@SteamQueen: He is in the shower. This is not a drill.]

[@KindleKiller: Hot water, tattoos, bad decisions. Perfect.]

[@RomanceGremlin: He looks less like an heir and more like a man being haunted by his crush.]

I covered my face.

Do not think about it. Which meant, of course, that I thought about it immediately.

What did Damian look like without a suit? I had seen enough loose ties, strong forearms, and crisp shirts stretched over broad shoulders to know the answer would ruin me.

If the comments were right, was he thinking about me too?

My fingers moved before my common sense could stop them.

I picked up the lipstick. The tube was warm. Not room-temperature warm. Not warmed by the lamp. It was a slow, living heat that spread into my palm as if someone on the other end of the bond had just sucked in a breath.

The comments exploded.

[@MafiaMutt: His knees nearly gave out.]

[@SteamQueen: Nora, your timing is lethal.]

[@SoftDomScholar: She only picked it up and he is already gone.]

My pulse beat hard in my ears.

This time, I did not pretend I was innocent.

I twisted off the cap. The bullet gleamed with a faint sheen, a deep berry red that looked almost too alive under my vanity light.

I leaned toward the mirror. Slowly, carefully, I touched it to the center of my lower lip.

The lipstick was suddenly so hot that I almost dropped it, but the color had already marked me: one small, glossy stroke of Crimson Vow against my mouth.

Somewhere far away, or maybe not far at all, I imagined Damian making that low sound again.

Then my phone rang.

Damian Moretti.

I stared at his name on my screen for one beat before answering.

His voice came through low and rough, threaded with a breath he was clearly trying to hide.

"Nora. What are you doing?"

I looked at myself in the mirror. The lipstick still burned warm against my fingers, and that single stroke of color made my mouth look softer, fuller, more dangerous.

"Putting on makeup."

The line went silent.

"Take it off."

I raised my eyebrows. "Why can't I put on makeup?"

He did not answer.

"Damian," I said slowly, "how do you know I am putting on makeup?"

The comments flashed so fast they almost blurred.

[@PageTurner88: CAUGHT.]

[@SteamQueen: She said use your words, sir.]

[@RomanceGremlin: Everybody stay calm. I am not calm.]

I looked at the lipstick in my hand, then at the bit of color on my lip.

"This is not ordinary lipstick, is it?"

Still silence.

"Mr. Moretti,if you want me to stop, you should probably explain why."

His breath caught.

That small sound went straight through me.

The sensible thing would have been to put the lipstick down.

Instead, I lifted it again and dragged the color a little farther across my lower lip.

Damian made a broken sound on the other end of the line.

"Nora." His voice was hoarse now, the edges scraped raw. "Stop."

"Then answer me."

Another breath. A muffled shift, as if he had braced a hand against something solid.

"Not on the phone."

"Why not?"

"Because if I tell you right now," he said, each word pulled tight, "you will keep testing it, and I am not as composed as you think I am."

My stomach fluttered.

The comments went feral.

[@MafiaMutt: HE SAID THE QUIET PART.]

[@BookTokAfterDark: Cold heir down. I repeat, cold heir down.]

[@SteamQueen: Nora, blink twice if you need a fan.]

I pressed my lips together, spreading the color.

Damian cursed under his breath.

"Tomorrow morning," he said before I could say another word. "Come to my office. I will tell you everything."

"And if I do not want to wait?"

For a moment, the only thing between us was his breathing.

Then he said, very quietly, "Then neither of us is sleeping tonight."

The heat in the lipstick pulsed against my palm.

I looked at my reflection, at the one uneven sweep of color he had somehow felt from across the city, and finally set the tube down before I lost my nerve completely.

"Fine," I said. "Tomorrow morning."

"Nora."

"Yes?"

His voice softened, and for one second the heir vanished. There was only Damian, careful and desperate and much too close for a man on the other end of a phone call.

"Do not let anyone else touch it."

My smile faded into something warmer.

"I won't."

The next morning, I brought the revised file to the top-floor office.

Damian's door was shut. Vanessa had gone in a minute before me with his latte and the smile she saved for him alone.

Then I heard Vanessa gasp.

I pushed the door open instantly.

Vanessa was on her knees between Damian's legs.