The air between them was heavy, thick with something neither of them was willing to name. Selene's pulse pounded in her ears as Kieran's fingers stayed tangled in her hair, his grip firm but not forceful.
She should have pushed him away.
She didn't.
Instead, she stood there, caught in his orbit, every breath drawing her deeper into the gravity of him.
"You're waiting for me to say it," she whispered.
Kieran's lips curled, his eyes gleaming with something dark and unreadable. "Say what?"
Selene swallowed hard. "That I'm yours."
His grip tightened just slightly, just enough to make her breath hitch. "You don't have to say it." His voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of something unshakable. "I already know."
A shiver ran through her, not from fear, but from the truth in his words.
Because a part of her knew too.
She had known the moment she didn't walk away.
The moment she let him touch her.
The moment she stopped fighting the inevitable.
"I shouldn't want this," she murmured.
Kieran tilted his head, watching her intently. "And yet, you do."
Selene exhaled sharply, her hands clenching at her sides. "You're insufferable."
A low chuckle escaped him. "You're just realizing that now?"
She scowled, shoving against his chest. It should have been a warning. A boundary.
But Kieran caught her wrist before she could step away, pulling her flush against him instead.
Selene gasped, her body betraying her, melting into the warmth of his.
His fingers traced a slow path up her arm, sending a trail of fire in their wake. "Tell me to stop," he murmured.
She should.
She needed to.
But the words wouldn't come.
Kieran's lips brushed against her temple, slow and deliberate. "That's what I thought."
Selene's breath hitched. "You're playing a dangerous game."
Kieran's smirk deepened. "I don't play, Selene." His voice dropped, low and edged with promise. "I win."
Her heart slammed against her ribs as his lips grazed her jaw, lingering just long enough to unravel her completely.
And when he finally kissed her, claiming her with a possessive hunger that left no room for doubt—
Selene knew she had lost.
Completely.
Irrevocably.
And she had never wanted anything more.