Diane’s phone buzzed somewhere on the nightstand, the sound drilling into her skull like a carpenter working overtime.

Her eyes cracked open to harsh morning light streaming through the curtains she’d forgotten to close. The digital clock beside her phone read 7:03 AM in cruel red numbers.

Four hours of sleep. Christ.

Another buzz. Then another. Her phone was having a full conversation with itself, probably her assistant losing her mind over something that could have waited until a reasonable hour. Diane reached for it, her arm protesting the movement.

Everything protested.

Her thighs ached. Her hips felt like someone had spent hours testing their flexibility limits.

Someone had.

The memories hit her all at once. Lukas’s hands on her skin. His mouth everywhere. The way he’d moved inside her for what felt like forever, round after round until she’d stopped being able to form coherent sentences. Six times.

The boy had made her come six times and fucked her through every single one like he had something to prove.

And he’d still been hard when they finally stopped.

Diane’s face flushed hot despite the morning chill in her room. She glanced sideways, half expecting to find Lukas still tangled in her sheets. The bed was empty. The pillow beside hers showed the clear impression of his head, and when she touched it, the fabric still held warmth.

He must have left recently. Probably sneaking back to his room before Sloane woke up for training.

Her daughter. God, what had she done?

Diane sat up slowly, wincing as muscles she’d forgotten existed reminded her they did. The sheets stuck to her thighs. Cum, still tacky and drying. Lukas’s cum, dripping out of her even hours later.

She could feel the sticky residue between her legs, coating her inner thighs in a way that made her stomach twist with equal parts satisfaction and horror.

Her phone buzzed again. Three new emails, all flagged urgent. Two texts from her assistant. One from a client threatening to fire her agency if she didn’t call back by eight.

"Fuck," Diane muttered, scrolling through the messages with one hand while the other rubbed her temple. The light was too bright. Her head pounded.

She felt thoroughly used in a way she hadn’t experienced since her twenties, back when stamina was something you had instead of something you faked.

Young people. They had too much energy. Lukas especially.

She stood carefully, testing her legs. They held, barely. Walking to the bathroom required concentration and several pauses to let the world stop spinning.

When she caught her reflection in the mirror, she stopped completely.

Her hair looked like she’d stuck her finger in an electrical socket. Mascara that she’d forgotten to remove last night had smeared down her cheeks in dark streaks. Her lipstick was completely gone, probably transferred to various parts of Lukas’s body throughout the evening.

Bite marks dotted her neck and shoulders, dark purple bruises that would need serious concealer. Her breasts showed matching marks where Lukas had sucked hard enough to claim territory.

And her thighs. Jesus Christ, her thighs were a disaster. Handprint bruises on both hips from where Lukas had gripped her. Red marks from his fingers on her inner thighs.

Cum still leaking slowly down her legs because apparently six loads inside one woman was more than physics could handle.

She looked exactly like what she was. A woman who’d spent hours getting absolutely destroyed by someone half her age.

Diane turned on the shower, setting the temperature as hot as she could stand. Steam filled the bathroom quickly.

She stepped under the spray and hissed as the water hit her oversensitive skin. Everything felt raw. Used. Claimed.

The phantom sensation of Lukas wouldn’t leave. She could still feel his hands on her hips, his mouth on her breast, his cock stretching her until she’d thought she might break.

The way he’d whispered her name against her ear. The way he’d commanded her to come for him one more time when she’d sworn she couldn’t.

Diane pressed her forehead against the cool tile, letting the water cascade down her back. Her hand drifted between her legs almost involuntarily, fingers sliding through the mess he’d left. She was sore. Swollen. Thoroughly fucked in every sense of the phrase.

And she wanted more.

That realization hit her harder than the water streaming down her spine. She wanted Lukas again. Wanted to feel him inside her, wanted to hear him moan her name, wanted to watch his face as he came.

Wanted to test his stamina, see how many times she could make him fuck her before that impossible recovery speed finally gave out.

The thought should have horrified her. She’d raised this boy. Watched him grow from a traumatized eight-year-old into the confident seventeen-year-old who’d made her scream last night. She’d promised Reina she’d take care of him, keep him safe, give him a future.

She hadn’t promised to fuck him into her mattress for four straight hours.

But here she was. Standing in the shower at seven in the morning, still dripping his cum, already planning when they could do it again.

Diane grabbed the body wash and started scrubbing. The soap stung against her marked skin, a sharp reminder of boundaries she’d obliterated without hesitation.

She washed between her legs carefully, working out the sticky evidence of their night together. The water ran cloudy at her feet.

Her mind kept circling back to what Lukas had said. His hypothesis. That his powers grew stronger through physical intimacy.

If that were true, if sex actually made him more powerful, then who should she allow near him?

Lukas was going to be strong. She’d seen enough Hero careers to recognize potential when it manifested, and his late blooming combined with dual abilities meant something special was happening.

If intimate contact accelerated that growth, then the women around him weren’t just partners. They were contributors to his development.

Resources, in a sense.

Diane paused mid-scrub, soap suds sliding down her stomach. The thought was cold. Clinical. Exactly the kind of strategic thinking that had built her agency from nothing into the most successful Hero management firm in California.

Sloane would be good for Lukas. She was strong, driven, already manifested with a Legendary tier Aspect. If they became intimate, if Sloane contributed to Lukas’s growth the way Diane apparently had, then her daughter would be helping him reach his potential. Building something together.

That was good. That made sense.

But Sloane couldn’t be the only one.