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The water was warm. For the first time in years, my body let go. 🔥 Then I heard it. Three knocks. Slow. Even. 'Routine inspection, gem. Open the door.' He has a master key. And he knocks exactly the way my stepfather used to. Always three. 💔 👇 Chapter 1 💔 TRIAL FAILED 💔 You have given your virtue to a pretender. The Wet Rose Pleasure House is expecting you. "Fuck this stupid game!" My headphones hit the wall and crack. The screen still glows at me — that smug pink notification, the little broken heart. I've lost seven times. Seven times I trusted the wrong man and woke up face-down in a virtual brothel while a pixelated madam tells me the sheets are freshly laundered. I call Maya before I've even stood up. "You lost again," she says instead of hello. "I'm done. Permanently. I'm deleting the game." "You don't understand the lore," I tell her, heading for the stairs. "The Prince hides his identity. You're the gem of the season. Twelve suitors. And if you give your virginity to the wrong one, you get sent to a brothel and restart the whole season from scratch." "Six months of your life," she says, "inside a game about fake court virginity. Instead of going anywhere. A bar. You'd have to talk to actual men." "I hate bars." The truth is, I do want things. Just in a very specific, contained way that needs no actual human beings in the equation — because the last man who put his hands on me without asking taught my body to lock shut. I start up the stairs, leftovers under my arm. My foot comes down wrong on the top step. The world snaps off like a light. I come back to the sound of rustling silk. High stone ceiling. Candles. Women in corsets moving around me. I'm standing in the middle of the Arrival Hall of the Royal Court of Vaelith. What the hell am I doing inside the game? 📖 Read 'Play Me Once, Your Highness' now 👑