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A dark laugh left me. “That’s confident.”
“I won’t confuse sex with forgiveness, Ryan. I won’t pretend your body wanting mine means you trust me again, and I won’t ask you for a promise you haven’t offered.” She rose onto her toes, bringing her mouth close enough that every word touched mine. “But you know what I want too.”
“A second chance.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not giving you one.”
“Not tonight.” She held my gaze when my expression hardened. “Tonight, you’re giving me this offer. I’m accepting it on your terms, but I’m not surrendering mine. You want to know what we would’ve been if I had chosen you openly. I’m going to show you what we still can be.”
“It won’t change anything.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about.”
“Charm.”
“I’m not going to fight fair.”
“You think this is a fight?”
“I think you locked me out and came here hoping one weekend with me would help you forget what’s behind the door.” Her fingers curled into my shirt. “You want closure. I want another chance. We both know exactly what the other person is doing.”
“You’re going to lose.”
“I’m still going to try.”
“Do you, mami.” I slid my hand down her back and closed it around the ass I’d been staring at all night. “While you’re trying to penetrate the door I locked you out of, I’ll be fucking you senseless against it.”
Her lips parted.
That was the reaction I wanted. No more speeches. No rehearsed apologies, careful explanations, or promises neither of us knew how to believe. Charm wanted to fight her way back into my heart, and I wanted the version of us we had denied ourselves until she destroyed any chance of having it.
She could fight and I could fuck. My anger would make sure I remembered the difference.
“You’re assuming I’ll let you remain in control,” she said.
I tightened my grip and dragged her against the erection already straining behind my zipper. “You’ve spent fifteen months becoming brave. Don’t waste reckless now.”
“I’m finally brave enough to be reckless with you.”
“Wrong answer.”
“It’s the honest one.”
I caught her jaw and kissed her before honesty became another weapon she could turn against me. Charm opened beneath my mouth without hesitation, meeting every rough stroke of my tongue while her hands slid beneath my jacket and pulled me closer.
I didn’t soften the kiss.
This was the part of me I’d kept restrained throughout our relationship. I had watched her breathing, monitored every change in her body, and held part of myself back because I knew how quickly intensity became danger inside her head. Even when Charm begged for more, I remained careful enough to make sure my hunger never became another thing she had to survive.
I wasn’t giving her careful tonight.
Charm said she wanted the man behind the restraint. She wanted me without the protection, patience, and constant fear that one wrong movement would send her retreating into herself.
She could have me.
My hand found the back of her neck and held her exactly where I wanted her while my mouth took everything she offered. Charm met the force of it without shrinking from the anger underneath. She didn’t try to soften me into something easier to hold or wait for reassurance that she was giving me what I wanted.
