(Aria POV)He doesn't let go.The yard is completely still. No wind. No distant engine noise. Just the two of us standing in the dirt with his hands around my wrists and the aftermath of what I said sitting between us like a lit fuse.I hold his gaze. "What happens if I don't pull away?"His jaw tightens. Something moves through his eyes, fast and controlled, the way a current moves under ice, present but contained. "Then I make you."The words land wrong. Wrong in the specific way that flips a switch somewhere low in my chest, not a warning, not a threat, just a line that should not have sounded like that, delivered in that particular register, at this particular proximity.I move first.My free hand grabs the front of his shirt, fingers twisting into the fabric, and I pull him down.His mouth hits mine hard.For half a second he goes completely still, hands frozen on my wrists, body arrested mid-breath like his entire system just short-circuited. I feel the exact moment his control
Last Updated : 2026-04-02 Read more