Became.
As if the Brand had changed her classification. As if she’d moved from employee to asset. From adjacent to inside.Sera’s anger flared again, hot and sharp.”I didn’t choose this,” shesaid.
Alaric’s voice went quieter. “Neither did I.”
Silence stretched.
Sera realized then that this wasn’t him trying to manipulate her. It was him trying not to drown. He’d spent his life building walls, and now there was a door in the center of them that wouldn’t close.
She softened, just slightly, without giving up ground.”Okay,” she said. “Then we figure out rules.”
Something flickered across Alaric’s face. Not anger. Not resistance. Amusement. Brief and sharp, like he’d just spotted the flaw in abeautiful theory.
“Rules,” he repeated, and for the first time there was something almost ironic in his voice.
“Yes,” she said, already bracing. “Because I’m done reacting. Iwant to understand what sets this mark off. Proximity. Emotion. Touch. You just told me sex makes it louder. Fine. Then we need to know what we’re dealing with.”
He stepped closer instead of answering. The move was unhurried. Deliberate. And it set every nerve in her body onedge.
“The Brand doesn’t obey rules,” he said quietly. “That’s the point.”
Before she could respond, his hand came up, fingers closing around the back of her neck, not forcible but absolute, anchoring her in place.
And then he kissedher.
Hard. Claiming. Nothing tentative about it. His mouth took hers with a certainty that stole her breath, like he’d decided hesitation was the greater risk. There was no question in it, no test. Just possession and proof, akiss meant to demonstrate exactly how little authority the Brand respected once it was engaged.
Sera’s breath broke on a soft sound she didn’t mean to make as his mouth took hers, the kiss stripping away the careful scaffolding she’d been building in herhead. Heat surged instantly, the Brand flaring hot and bright, as if it had been waiting for permission he’d never intended togive.
“No touching,” he said against her mouth, the words rough and restrained at the same time. “That’s the rule.”
Even as he said it, his grip tightened, fingers flexing against the back of her neck as if restraint were a physical strain instead of a choice. His body pressed close enough for her to sense the tension locked through him, the measured stillness of a man forcing himself to obey a rule he already knew was failing. It cost him breath. Command. Something deeper than either, and that cost cascaded into her as surely as if it had been transferred directly into her own blood.
Sera tried to pullback.
She failed miserably.
Her hands lifted, stopping just short of his chest, fingers curling in the air like they were searching for something solid to affix to. The urge to touch him was sharp and immediate, apull that had nothing to do with choice or intention. The space between them resisted her, as if the Brand itself were holding her there, suspended in that last inch, daring her to pretend restraint was stillhers to claim.
“Push me away,” he ordered softly, and then his mouth was on hers again, deeper this time, the kiss demanding and relentless, as if he were daring her to prove him wrong.
Her pulse thundered. The Brand burned, fierce and insistent, lighting her up from the inside.
“No,” he murmured into the kiss. “Say it. Tell me no.”
She knew she should.
She knew she neededto.
But her body didn’t recognize the rule. Didn’t recognize distance as safety. All it knew was him. The pull. The correction.
She shook her head instead, asmall, helpless motion that told the truth her mouth wouldn’tform.
Alaric exhaled sharply, something like a curse caught behind his teeth. His forehead dropped briefly to hers, their breaths tangling, his restraint visibly fraying.
“That’s what I mean,” he said, voice low. “Rules don’t hold.”
He kissed her again, slower this time, devastating in its power, as if he were mapping the limits of both of them at once. The Brand pulsed with every heartbeat,loud and hungry and utterly indifferent to the boundaries they were trying to impose.
