Perfect đ Let's intensify it, then. I'll keep it dark, sensual, and manipulative, but not crass.
Maria Steele had always been the kind of woman who believed every weakness could be turned into power if one was bold enough. Tonight, her power wasn't her family name. It wasn't her father's crumbling empire. It was her bodyâand the way men lost their reason around it.
The man she had targeted was not Rhett Barone himself, but someone who lived close to his shadow: a broker whose influence lay in whispers and the passing of favors. He wasn't particularly handsome, nor especially powerful, but he was a bridge, and Maria was willing to cross it in the oldest way she knew.
The suite was cloaked in low golden light. His eagerness was almost pathetic, the way his hands trembled when she leaned in, the way his breath grew ragged as she brushed her lips against his ear. To him, it was seduction. To her, it was business.
Every sigh she gave, every arch of her back, every whispered moan was deliberate, crafted like lines in a play. She watched him unravel, watched his control splinter into need. And when it was overâwhen he lay beside her flushed and triumphantâMaria lay calmly, her eyes sharp, her mind already calculating.
"You'll speak to Barone's people for me?" she murmured, tracing her fingers idly along his chest.
"Of course," he gasped, still drunk on the illusion she had woven. "Anything. I'll make the introduction myself."
Maria smiled, though it never reached her eyes. He thought he had conquered her, but in truth, he was already discarded. His usefulness ended the moment he promised her Barone's attention.
When she left the hotel, her dress immaculate and her lipstick freshly reapplied, there was no trace of what had transpired. Only the gleam of triumph in her gaze.
---
Robert Steele had been pacing his study like a caged animal when she returned. He was unravelingâthe Marlowe collapse had tightened the vise around his empire, and the thought of Rhett Barone's power left him restless, desperate.
Maria entered like a queen, calm and composed.
"I got us in," she said simply.
Robert stopped cold. His eyes widened, searching her face for confirmation.
"What⊠what do you mean?"
"I made a connection. Someone close enough to Barone to matter. He's agreed to put you in front of him. All you need to do is be ready."
Robert's chest expanded, a ragged breath tearing out of him as relief washed over his frame. He seized her shoulders, gripping tightly as though she were the rope pulling him from drowning.
"My daughter⊠my brilliant Maria. You've done what no one else could. You've saved this family, saved me! The Steele name will live because of you!"
Then his voice turned venomous.
"Unlike your sister. Lilith has always been a burdenâweak, timid, a disgrace to my name. But you, Maria, you are the daughter I can be proud of."
Maria tilted her chin, her lips curving in satisfaction. He would never know the price she paid for his praise, and even if he did, she doubted he would care. To Robert Steele, only results mattered.
---
Across the hall, Lilith lay on her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. The words "weak" and "disgrace" echoed in her skull like knives. No matter how hard she worked, she would never outshine Maria. Not in her father's eyes.
Her phone buzzed on the nightstand, the screen glowing with an unknown number. Hesitant, she answered.
"Hello?"
There was a pause, then a deep voice she thought she'd never hear again.
"Lilith."
Her breath froze. Her grip on the phone tightened.
"Carl⊠Creed?" she whispered.
A quiet chuckle rumbled through the line.
"Yes. I'm back in the country."
Terror and longing collided in her chest. Why now? Why him? Memories of their burning loveâand the pain of his disappearanceârushed back with crushing force.
As the line crackled, Lilith sat frozen in the dark, fear gripping her as the world she thought she knew began to shift beneath her feet.
---