Chapter 63

Briar’s POV

Their breaths were shallow. Like drowning men who thought they’d found the shore only to realize it was a mirage stitched from lust and desperation.

They didn’t see me anymore.

Not the real me. I created an illusion of me what they saw wasn’t real.

I sat, cross-legged in the corner of the room, the light washing amber over bare thighs and cool skin. My fingers toyed lazily with the frayed edge of Kai’s jacket, draped like a forgotten relic across my lap. My body was still, regal, composed. But inside? A smile coiled slow beneath my ribs. Because they believed.

Oh, they believed.

Kai’s eyes were wide and dark, jaw slack as he stood there stripped to the waist, jeans hanging open, cock thick and twitching in the grip of fantasy. His breath stuttered as he moaned, watching what he thought was me—kneeling between them, glossy lips wrapped around the head of his cock, one hand fisting Kieran’s shaft with rhythmic strokes, the other p