“But Aria . . .” I can barely form the thought. “She’s marrying into that family. If they were capable of that—”
“My hands were bound then, as they are now,” he murmurs. His fingers resume their rhythm, drawing calming patterns across my skin. “Though between us . . .” He hesitates, and something in that pause makes my pulse hitch. “I’m not entirely convinced Kian gave the final command. Dominic has always been unstable, and his fixation on your sister is hardly subtle.”
“No,” I say automatically, but doubt seeps in anyway.
“Isn’t it possible?” Alexander presses gently. “You’ve seen the way he isolates her. How he feeds her paranoia while making her dependent on him. The boy’s not in love. He’s building a prison and calling it devotion.”
“I should warn her,” I whisper, but the words lack conviction. Years of watching Aria shine while I stood in shadows rise up like ghosts between us.
“She wouldn’t listen,” he says simply. “Not now. Dominic’s already whittled her world down to shadows and suspicion. He’s made himself the only constant. Try to break that, and she’ll only cling harder.”
I look down at our joined hands. I want to believe I’m better than this, that I care more, but that’s not true.
“She made her choice,” I say quietly.
Alexander’s hand lifts, cupping my cheek. “And now you have, too. The intake is tomorrow. The new serum trials begin the moment Rowe delivers his promised creatures. You’ll lead it.”
The words should sound clinical, even strategic. But when he saysyou’ll lead it,the weight of it lands differently. There’s power in it. Validation. Elevation.
“You’re the only one I trust to do this properly,” he continues, thumb brushing the corner of my mouth. “You are not an afterthought, Luna. You never were.”
The city blurs past beyond the windows. I remember all the years I spent trying to earn scraps of approval. All the moments I watched Aria command rooms with nothing but her presence while I sharpened myself in silence.
“Is it wrong,” I ask quietly, “that I don’t care who killed them? They never really saw me. Not unless it was through Aria’s reflection. I could’ve bottled the secret to immortality and they would’ve asked if she helped.”
“And now?” His voice holds no judgment, only understanding. “What’s enough for you, Luna?”
I lean into his hand, the only warmth that’s ever felt earned. “This. The work. The breakthroughs.You.” The word hangs there, bare and trembling. “The way you see me, trust me, and challenge me. With you, I finally understand what it means to be enough.”
His gaze burns as it meets mine, revealing a hunger that was always there, sharpened now into something possessive and utterly unguarded. And it’s all for me.
“I know it might not mean much, but there was a reason for their deaths,” he says softly. “A purpose that served the greater good. Your parents’ research was brilliant, but their moral limitations . . .” He shakes his head. “They would have held us back from what needs to be done.”
“You’re right.” My voice sounds distant, disembodied, even as Alexander’s hand drifts from my hair back to the delicate curve of my neck. His thumb traces the thrum of my pulse, and whatever thought I had disintegrates beneath his touch. “And Aria made her choice. She’s on her own now. I don’t want anything to do with her.”
My breath hitches as his other hand settles at my waist, drawing me into the orbit of his body. Tentatively, I let my fingers brush his wrist, and his pulse jumps at the contact. His skin is warm, and I trace the veins there with growing boldness. A subtle tremor runs through him.
“You’re learning,” he murmurs, and his smile is proud. “Though if you ever choose to help her later . . .”
“For now,” I whisper, my other hand rising to press against his chest, the fabric brushing soft beneath my fingers. “I need to focus on myself. On our work. On everything we’re—” I falter as he leans closer, his breath tickling my skin.
The space between us brims with unspoken things—want, need, hunger that has waited too long. Every point of contact is a tether to something dangerous and I want to follow it all the way down.
“Luna.” His voice is rough. “Once we cross this line, there’s no returning to what we were. Are you certain this is what you want?”
My heart slams against my ribs. He’s Alexander Darkmoor. My superior. One of the most powerful men in Eclipsera. Married. Untouchable. And yet his touch unearths every part of me I’ve tried to bury.
“I’ve never been more certain of anything.” I reach up and trace the cut of his jaw—too perfect, too cruel, too real.
He doesn’t move. For a heartbeat, the world is still.
Then he breaks, his mouth claiming mine, and breath abandons me. The kiss begins in restraint but when I gasp, the leash snaps. He devours me, chasing both redemption and ruin in the way his mouth moves against mine. I’m like a sin he’s spent too long resisting, and now refuses to let go. Alexander’s grip anchors me to him as if he could pull me into his bloodstream and carry me forever.
The engine hums steady beneath us, the partition closing the driver away. I press closer, fevered and reckless, and Alexander’s groan vibrates low in his throat, hot against my mouth. The leather seat creaks as he drags me into his lap and I swallow the gasp that rises, terrified that we'll be heard. His fingers tangle hard in my hair, the other searing at my waist, and disbelief claws through me. Alexander Darkmoor is kissing me. Each wet, hungry drag of his mouth makes it harder to believe, until the thought is gone and all that’s left is the ruin of the line we’ve destroyed.
Years of being touch-starved melt away under his hands. His mouth finds the hollow of my throat, and I arch into him with a gasp as his teeth graze the skin above my racing pulse.
“Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted this?” he breathes against my neck. “Since that first dinner we had. I watched you in my lab every day after, brilliant and untouchable.” His hands tighten at my hips, pulling me flush against him. “And the things I imagined . . .”
