005

Chapter Five

Elara

I had braced myself for him to twist the knife out of my hand and turn it on me, or to throw out some cutting, arrogant remark. This—this completely blindsided me.

For one fractured second everything inside me went still. Then it all rushed back at once, louder and faster than I could handle.

His kiss was not soft. It was not careful.

It was deliberate, controlled, as if he had already decided exactly how this would unfold and I was simply trying to keep pace.

My first reaction should have been to shove him away. To remember the knife still gripped in my hand. To remember the humiliation of waiting hours, dressed up for a man who never bothered to appear.

He was the reason I had brought the blade in the first place.

But that instinct tangled with something far more dangerous—the very thing he had mocked—and I hated how accurately he had read me.

My mind surrendered completely. Instead of pulling back, I faltered. My breath caught. A shiver raced down my spine.

His mouth was warm and firm, moving against mine with slow, purposeful pressure that blurred every coherent thought until I could no longer hold onto them.

I was not supposed to melt after a single encounter with a stranger.

I barely knew him, and yet he had pinned me to a wall and turned my threat into a game. Still, I leaned in just enough to feel more of him. That tiny shift was a mistake the moment it happened, because he noticed.

A low sound rumbled from his throat. His hand tightened at my waist, dragging me flush against him, erasing the last inch of space. Another jolt shot through me.

My grip on the knife loosened without permission. My fingers went slack as every scrap of focus slipped away.

A soft, helpless sound escaped me before I could stop it.

Somewhere in the middle of trying not to fall apart completely, the knife slipped from my hand and struck the floor with a dull thud that did nothing to break the spell.

One moment his hands held me in place. The next they were framing my face, tilting my head so he could deepen the kiss. My entire body went liquid.

I only registered later that the hand that had held the knife had slid beneath his jacket to rest against his chest, feeling the steady, unbothered beat of his heart under my palm.

The heat of him, the confident way his mouth claimed mine, wrapped me in a haze so complete that for a few stolen seconds I forgot how to think at all.

The most terrifying part was not that I let it happen.

It was that I answered it.

My body betrayed me, leaning deeper into the fire he had lit.

Then he drew back just far enough for his lips to brush mine as he spoke, voice low and edged with that same maddening amusement.

“You were never going to use it.”

His eyes flicked to the discarded knife on the floor.

The haze shattered. I jerked backward, breath coming too fast, mind scrambling to catch up with what had just happened.

Before I could put real distance between us, his hand tightened slightly on my jaw. He tugged at my lower lip just enough to make my breath hitch again, then released me completely.

As if proving he was the one allowing me to leave—and that I would still lean in if he permitted it.

As if he had already won a game I hadn’t realized we were playing.

I stepped back until there was actual space between us. My chest rose and fell too quickly. Heat flooded my face as the full weight of what I had just done settled in.

I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t process how easily control had slipped through my fingers, how thoroughly my own body had turned against me.

I needed ice water. Or a cold shower. Or both.

While I stood there trying to remember how to breathe, he watched me with that same faint smirk, thumb brushing slowly over his lower lip.

Completely unaffected.

“Still can’t speak?” he asked, almost casually.

And just like that I understood. The kiss had been a weapon. A deliberate humiliation.

Anger flared—mostly at myself this time. Rather than give him the satisfaction of another reaction, I turned away sharply, not trusting my voice.

I needed to leave before he saw me flee the way the last girl had, even though he hadn’t raised his voice once.

I half expected him to catch my wrist again, to drag me back into whatever this was. He didn’t. Somehow that was worse. It meant he had made his point and was content to let me go.

I pushed the door open and stepped into the hallway, nearly running as I put distance between myself and that man.

I wasn’t watching where I was going.

I collided hard with someone.

“Ow—”

I stumbled. A familiar voice cut through the haze.

“Elara?”

Everything inside me locked in place.

“What are you doing here?”

My head snapped up.

Elias stood directly in front of me.