I stood before him, bare under the moonlight, my heart thundering like a storm in my chest.
His eyes, once blue, turned black as night—bottomless, endless, filled with a desire that stole the breath from my lungs.
I pulled him down to me on instinct, impulse, or something deeper than thought.
And kissed him.
It was not gentle.
It was not kind.
It was fire meeting fire, ruin kissing ruin.
His lips crushed mine, his hands tangled in my hair, and I felt him—every ounce of longing, of need, of something primal and infinite. His kiss was possession. His touch, damnation.
And I wanted to fall with him.
My body pressed against his, heat and hunger rising with every breath. My skin sang where he touched me. My soul reached for his like a tide answering the moon’s pull.
He devoured me, and I let him.
Because I wanted to be consumed.
Utterly. Completely.
Irrevocably.
He pulled away after an eternity suspended between one heartbeat and the next.
I was left breathless and trembling, my lips tingling from the kiss we’d shared—a kiss that tasted like fire, moonlight, and something forbidden. My chest heaved as I stared at him, unable to look away.
And in his eyes… I saw something new.
Not just desire. Not just darkness.
But something intoxicating—something thatknewme.
And yet, through the haze of heat and adrenaline, a sudden chill crept in.
What have I done?
I had kissed a stranger. A man cloaked in shadow. A killer.
“I—I’m so sorry,” I stammered, my voice small, shaking. “I didn’t mean to kiss you. I don’t know what came over me.”
“No,” he said softly, but his voice carried an unshakable strength. “The blame is mine. I am a gentleman… or I once was. I should not have allowed such closeness. I shouldn’t have taken advantage.”
He stepped back and gave an elegant, graceful bow.
“My name is Lord Balthazar.”
As he rose, the moonlight caught the regal, devastating lines of his face. It shimmered across his dark lashes, his lips still red from mine.
“I am Lady Alina Tocino,” I replied, barely more than a whisper. My name felt too delicate in my mouth.
“It’s truly my fault, Lord Balthazar. I… I don’t know what came over me.”
He smiled then, knowingly. The kind of smile that doesn’t just see you… butreadsyou.
