Then he broke it.Abruptly. Like a man tearing himself away from a fire before it burned him alive.He rested his forehead against hers, breath heavy, hands still gripping her as if letting go would be a mistake he couldn’t afford.
For an instant, she understood exactly how easy it would be to let this replace the answer he wouldn’tgive.
“That,” he said hoarsely, “is what I’ll do with whatever Magnus finds. Every. Fucking. Time.”He released her then, stepping back, restoring distance with visibleeffort.”But what I want doesn’t get to decide this,” he finished, voice steadying, walls slamming back into place.
The words hit harder than thekiss.
Sera stared at him for a heartbeat longer, chest rising too fast, lips still tingling, heart pounding with everything he’d just confirmed and denied in the same breath.He had answered her the only way he knew how. And it still wasn’t enough.
She turned before he could stop her, before he could touch her again, before she could lose the resolve she’d clawed back piece by piece.She crossed the room fast, bare legs silent on the floor, the hem of his shirt brushing her thighs like an accusation.
At the door, she paused.
She didn’t look back.
“You don’t get to claim me with your mouth,” she said, voice steady despite the tremor in her hands, “when you won’t choose me with your actions.”
Then she opened the door and fled theroom.
The latch clicked shut behindher.
Alaric didn’t move.
The space she left behindfelt scorched.
For the first time since he’d become Underboss, he wasn’t sure whether holding the line had just cost him the one thing he wouldn’t be able to getback.
And wanted more than anything.
Chapter 14
SERA DIDN’T LEAVE.
That seemed to surprise people.
Not openly. Not in ways they’d ever admit out loud. But she saw it anyway, in the quick looks that slid past her in the halls, in the way conversations paused and resumed a beat too late, in the subtle recalibration of expectations. Women fled when things turned dangerous. Sensible women stepped aside. Smart women protected themselves.
Sera stayed.
She stayed visible. She stayed professional. She stayed exactly where she was supposed tobe.
She agreed to the investigation without argument, without drama, without needing to be convinced. She answered questions calmly. Provided access cleanly. Let the process move through her like a current she neither fought nor leanedinto.
She didn’t defend herself, because there was nothing to defend. She didn’t plead, because pleading implied fear or guilt.
And she did not, under any circumstances, pretend nothing had changed.
It had.
The first rule was simple.
No shared bed.
She didn’t announce it. She didn’t justify it. She simply moved her things into a guest bedroom and closed the door between them like it had always been thatway.
The second rule followed naturally.
No touching.
