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“I can’t and won’t force you. It’s your decision.” She sighed, a deeply defeated noise that made my heart squeeze. “But… Would it be alright if I visited you sometimes? Brought coffee? Took you to dinner?”

She met my eyes with a stubborn set in her jaw even as her foot bounced with nerves. If I were standing, my knees would’ve gone weak.

My pushy vampire was more worried about our personal relationship than our working one, and it felt good. My heart was pounding harder in my chest at the realization that the gentleemotions that’d been growing between us weremore important to her than some workplace flirtation.

Something worth protecting.

“You’d want to?”

“Yes,” she breathed.Ren moved slowly, intentionally, as her hand reached for me. Dark eyes searched mine for permission before it made contact with my jaw and chin, tilting my face up to hers. “But the real question is—would you want me to?”

“Yes.”

There was something in the way that she looked at me, the stark contrast of nerves and resolve, that emboldened me. I leaned into her touch, relishing the gentle caress of her fingers warmed by her coffee against my skin.

“Okay,” Ren murmured.

Her eyes studied my face in a way that made me think the answer surprised her.Like she didn’t quite believe me and was trying to add this moment to her long list of memories in case she had to say goodbye.

I couldn’t quite explain it, but in that moment, with the sincerity of her gaze… Something about it made it feel safe to be a little reckless.

“I’ll… try.” My voice was so quiet that without her improved hearing, I doubt she would’ve heard me at all. “To come back to the club, I mean.”

“We’ll keep you safe,” Ren promised, her gaze dipping to my mouth for a moment before rejoining my eyes. Her hand shifted until she was cupping my face with her thumb stroking my cheekbone.

“I know, but I’m not promising anything.”

“I know.”

My eyes flicked to her lips, the usual magnetism of the vampire heightened by how quickly she’d jumped to my defencethe night before. And now she was here and beautiful and so close.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I leaned forward until our lips were all but touching, my hand snaking into the fabric of her shirt.

“I’m sorry I pushed you away. I’m sorry I flinched yesterday.”

Ren froze at my words, her lips parting. We were so close that when she spoke, I could taste the words.

“May I?—?”

I had barely started to nod when she surged forward, pressing her lips to mine in a decadently chaste kiss that stopped as quickly as it started.

Ren brushed her nose against mine, and it wasn’t nearly enough.

Not even in the same planet as enough.

Fuck planets, actually. It wasn’t even in the same universe.

Ren’s hands trailed down my neck to my shoulders in soft strokes of her fingertips over my top. The thin material did little to hide my hardened nipples, something I should’ve considered when I’d gotten dressed. But as I scooted closer, my thumb pressing over the opening in my coffee cup to stop it from spilling everywhere, I sort of appreciated that the barrier between us was as flimsy as my rapidly failing self-control.

“Ren, I want?—”

I wantedmore.

More of her.

More of whatever this was between us.

To explore and taste and revel in the feeling of closeness Ren gave me simply by being herself. In the sensation that whatever was brewing between us felt like it’d been decided long before now.