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“This isn't a game, Vesper.”

“I never said it was.” I move closer until we're almost touching. “But you're making assumptions about what I can and can't handle based on nothing but your own fears. I decide what I am

capable of. Not you. Not the rest of them.” I move again until we’re chest to chest. “I want this. I want you.”

He lunges forward, one hand tangling painfully in my hair while the other grips my throat. His mouth crashes against mine with bruising force, nothing like the controlled kiss we shared moments ago. This is hunger unleashed, primal and dominating. I taste blood. Mine or his, I'm not sure, as his teeth catch my lower lip.

The weapons cabinet rattles behind me as he slams me against it, his body pinning mine, which leaves no room for escape. His fingers tighten around my throat, not enough to cut off air but enough to make my pulse thunder in my ears.

I should be afraid. I should push him away. Instead, I find myself responding with equal ferocity, dragging my nails down his back hard enough to leave marks even through his shirt.

“Is this what you want?” he demands. “To be at my mercy? To surrender everything to me?”

“Yes,” I breathe. The word hangs between us.

“I don't believe you,” he challenges me. “Words are easy. Prove it.”

His hands leave my hair and throat, moving to my hips as he spins me to face him again.

“On your knees,” he commands, his voice leaving no room for negotiation.

I hold his gaze for a heartbeat, making sure he knows this is my choice before I slowly sink to my knees on the cold concrete floor. The basement air prickles against my skin, but it's nothing compared to the heat building inside me.

Alex looks down at me, something shifting in his expression. “Good girl,” he says, the praise sending an unexpected shiver through me. His hand cups my cheek, thumb tracing my lower lip with surprising gentleness. “But, as I said, this isn’t the time."

Confusion washes over me as he steps back. "What?"

“Stand up," he says, offering his hand to help me up.

“No,” I answer, swatting it away before I shove myself off the floor on my own. “You can't keep edging me like this, Alex. You can't keep pulling me in and pushing me away. Either you want this, want me, or you don't. I'm done with the mixed signals,” I continue, my chest heaving with anger. “One minute you're pinning me against walls, the next you're acting like touching me would burn you. It's exhausting.”

“You think I'm playing games? That this is fun for me?”

“I don't know what this is for you! The second I show you that I might actually want it too, you shut me down. You’re giving me blue ovaries, Alex.”

“I am not a good man.” His voice scrapes like shattered glass. “I’ve spent my entire life learning how to destroy people from the inside out. Not just enemies—lovers, partners, anyone who dares to get too close.”

He stalks toward me with wicked grace, backing me against the cabinet once more. This time, there's no desire on his face, only a cold, brutal honesty that makes my breath catch.

“You think I'm holding back because I don't want you? I'm holding back because I've watched what happens when I don't. The last woman couldn't even form complete sentences by the time I was done with her. The man before that killed himself.”

I swallow hard but hold my ground. “I'm not them.”

“No, you're not. You're stronger, which makes it worse.” His fingers trace my jawline. “Because I could go further with you. Push harder. Take more.”

“Maybe I want that,” I challenge.

“No, you don't. You want the fantasy of it, the edge, the thrill. But what I need...” He shakes his head. “I don't just dominate in the bedroom, Vesper. I consume. I own. I remake people until they don't recognize themselves anymore.”

“You're trying to scare me away.”

“I'm trying to save you.” His palm flattens against my chest over my heart. “I've destroyed every person who's ever tried to love me. Turned them into fragments of who they once were.”

This is his truth—raw, jagged, and real. I realize now what he’s been hiding behind those walls. Not just shadows, but devastation.

“You think you're the only one with a destructive streak?” I seethe, refusing to back down. “I've got demons too, Alex.”

“Not like mine. The things I need...the things I’ve done...I’ve broken people, Vesper. Men and women who thought they could handle what I am.” The confession falls between us like shattered glass. “I’ve left them empty shells, hollow versions ofthemselves. And I refuse—” His voice catches, revealing a crack of vulnerability. “—I refuse to do that to you until I have better control of myself.”