CareForward Conference — Panel room B1 Topic: Data Integrity in Clinical Trails: Ethics, Accountability, and the Chain of Custody The panelists rotated through their talking points like they were reading off the same script—just in slightly different tones. The rep from the Office of Human Research Protections was sharp-eyed and sharper-tongued. Dark hair yanked into a ponytail so tight it looked punitive. Her lipstick ma...

The rain tapped a delicate rhythm against the window above our couch, a soft percussion that blurred the edges of the world outside. Two droplets slid down the glass, side by side, and I found myself quietly cheering one onward, a secret race no one else could see. Foolish, perhaps, but I let it claim me. Wrapped naked beneath the blanket, warmth sealed tight around me, I sank into the cocoon it made, safe from the cold a...

The office was silent except for the hum of the air conditioning when he closed the door behind me. My heart thundered like it was trying to escape my chest. He didn’t need to say a word — the air was thick with something unspoken, a pull I couldn’t resist even if I wanted to. He stepped closer, so close I could smell the warm spice of his cologne, the faint edge of smoke clinging to his clothes. His hand brushed my wrist...

The beep of the keycard reader sliced through the kitchen’s near silence, the sound sharp enough to make me jolt. My eyes flicked from the slow, steady brew of my coffee to watch the door swing open, my breath tight. Not him. Jesus, I needed to get a grip. Okay, maybe I was paranoid. Definitely jumpy. Hungover too, thanks to the cheap whiskey still burning behind my eyes like regret. Sleep-deprived enough to feel it in my...

The conference room smelled like lemon pledge and ambition. The kind of scent I had learned to associate with corporate rot. It clung to the polished oak table, the glass water pitchers, the neat stacks of binders tabbed by quarter. Legal had shown up in force, sleeves rolled, pens already clicking, sport jackets slung over the backs of their chairs like they planned to be there awhile. Compliance, on the other hand, had...

My laugh was short, sharp, my fingers curling tighter around the dark glass of my beer bottle. “You’re serious?” He smiled, slow and lazy, like he knew something I didn’t. He leaned back against the barstool, broad, smug and impossible to ignore. “Dead serious.” I returned his smile with a snarky one of my own. “You think you can make me come without even getting me naked?” “I don’t think,” he said, voice low—like honey p...

One It was a little black book. Innocuous. Unremarkable. But it was the promise of it that held her still. She should’ve turned. Walked out. Forgotten the whole thing. But the bed was already made. Her panties already stripped from beneath her skirt. All with intention. Her fingers twitched at her sides. Involuntary. Fuck it. The cover was leather, worn with age. She opened it. A Summons. Cute. Cryptic. Very on brand. A l...

My car rattled as I idled outside his apartment. The check engine light glowed like a judgment—constant, unwelcome, just one more warning light in a life full of them. Rain slid down the windshield in lazy streaks. The wipers only cleared my side, the passenger side stayed smeared and foggy, half-forgotten. Like everything else, I hadn’t gotten around to fixing. My phone lit up in my lap, casting a soft glow over a face I...

I smile and wink while saying, “I do not doubt how eager your beaver will be young lady,” and turn to the left to carry you toward our bedroom. As we cross the threshold of our bedroom and approach our bed, I lower and loosen my grip on your thighs and lower your feet to the ground so that you can stand. We are lost staring into each other’s eye for what is only a few seconds but feels like an eternity. “Thank you sir. Af...