"And that is why you are shaking apart," he murmured. "You think if you stop moving, we'll realize you're useless and throw you back in the bin."
I opened my mouth to argue, but the words died in my throat. It was too accurate. It was a surgical incision straight to the rot in my soul.
"You aren't the help, Rowan," Juno said, his voice dropping to a low, hypnotic rumble. He raised a hand, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. His fingers lingered on my jaw, warm and steady. "And you aren't an employee. You are the prize."
I blinked, the term short-circuiting my logic centers. "I'm a consultant. The contract says?—"
"Forget the contract," he whispered. "Look at me."
I looked. I couldn't look anywhere else.
"You are hyperventilating," he noted. "Your pulse is visible in your neck. You are trying to organize spices because you're terrified that if you sit still, the quiet will eat you alive."
"The quiet is loud," I admitted, my voice cracking. "It lists things. Threats. Errors. Deadlines."
"Then we change the input."
He moved his hand to the back of my neck, his thumb pressing into the tension knot at the base of my skull.
"Breathe, Rowan. In."
I inhaled shakily, smelling him.
"Out."
I exhaled.
"Again. But this time, stop thinking."
"I can't," I whispered, clutching the edge of the counter until my knuckles turned white and the stone left indentations on myfingertips. "I don't know how to turn it off. The logic... it's a loop. It just keeps spinning."
"Then I'll break the loop."
Juno leaned forward.
He didn't ask. He didn't negotiate. He simply took.
He kissed me.
It wasn't a tentative, testing-the-waters kiss. It was an interdiction. His mouth covered mine with a firm, practiced pressure that wasn't sexual so much as it was overwhelming. He tasted slightly of mint tea.
My brain stalled. The spreadsheet in my head vanished, replaced by a wall of white static.
He pressed closer, his chest flattening against mine, his hand tightening on the back of my neck to hold me in place. It was intense, bordering on too much, flooding my senses with so much immediate data that I physically couldn't process anything else.
No fear.
No Vance.
No labels.
Just Juno.
He broke the kiss as abruptly as he’d started it, pulling back just enough to look me in the eye.
I gasped, air rushing back into my lungs. My lips tingled. The world had narrowed down to the amber irises staring at me.
"Is the loop broken?" he asked softly.
