“I don’t need to manipulate you, Aria,” he says. “You’re doing that just fine on your own.”
He steps back. Unlocks the door. Doesn’t say another word as he walks out.
I’m left trembling.
Not from fear.
Fromknowing.
I slam the conference room door shut behind me like it’ll hold back the avalanche, like it’ll do anything to slow the tide that’s already broken loose inside me. My hand’s still on the panel, blood thrumming in my fingertips like they remember his skin before my mind’s caught up.
I turn.
And he’s standing there—Aebon. Still. Silent. Watching me like I’m something divine and doomed all at once.
My feet move before I tell them to. My pulse is a drumline, pounding wild in my throat. My mind screams at me tostop, to think, tobreathe—but my body has other ideas.
And for once, I don’t fight it.
I cross the room in three strides, grab his lapels, and pull him down to me.
The kiss hits like an explosion.
Hard. Fierce. Devouring.
It’s not sweet. It’s not careful. It’s years of hate and heat and hunger finally finding a home. His mouth opens against mine, and I taste wine and danger and a promise I never wanted to understand.
He groans—deep and low—and the sound shudders through me like a tremor. His hands clutch my waist, not tight, not controlling… justthere, like if he doesn’t ground me we’ll both shatter.
And maybe we will.
But for those few seconds, I don’t care.
Then I shove him.
Hard.
We break apart, gasping, staring at each other like strangers who’ve been lovers in another lifetime.
“That never happened,” I snarl, breath ragged, heart slamming so loud it drowns everything else.
He doesn’t move. Doesn’t blink.
Then, softly, with the ghost of a smirk that feels like it’s carved into me already, he says, “Say it again… and I’ll pretend to believe you.”
My hands tremble.
But not with shame.
I turn. Flee the room before I let myself do something worse—like kiss him again. Or stay.
The corridor is cold. Bright. Brutal.
But nothing out here can touch me the way he just did.
And as I walk, pulse thrumming and lips still tingling from the contact, I whisper to no one?—
“I don’t regret it.”
