I stepped closer, forcing her against the desk. The sharp corner pressed into her back, but she didn't flinch. If anything, she grew confident tilting her chin higher, defiant.
"What do you want from me?" I asked, the words rasping through clenched teeth.
Her eyes burned with something fierce and unyielding as she said, "Something real. Something you can't control."
The words hit harder than I cared to admit, cutting through the armor I had spent years perfecting. She didn't just want me-she wanted the part of me that I kept buried, the part that I didn't even trust myself to handle.
I should've walked away. Should've let the silence swallow us whole.
But instead, I cupped her jaw, my thumb brushing her cheek as I murmured, "You don't know what you are asking for."
Her lips curved into the faintest smirk, a challenge that made my blood hum. "Then show me."
The room seemed to shrink, the air heavy with unspoken promises. My hands found her waist and for the first time in years, I felt out of control.
Her breath hitched as my hands tightened on her waist, pulling her closer. The silk of her dress was cool against my fingers, a sharp contract to the fire she was stroking with every word, every defiant look.
"I'm not a man you play games with," I warned, though my voice had lost its edge. It sounded rough and uneven.
She tilted her head, her lips brushing the shell of my ear as she whispered, "And yet here we are."
That did it. I claimed her mouth with mine, crushing any last pretense of control between us. She met with the same intensity, her hands tangling my hair, pulling me closer like she couldn't get enough.
Every instinct told me to stop, to push her away before I did something I couldn't take back.