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“Wasn’t planning to.”

That little confession is the last thread snapping loose inside me. I catch her wrist before she can step away, drag her flush to me so her body lines against mine, and fuck, the bond between us hums alive, singing under my skin like it’s begging for more.

I crash my mouth to hers, hard, desperate, all that molten magic she’s been funneling into me snapping like a wire pulled too tight. She tastes like everything I’ve ever wanted and shouldn’t have. Sweet and wild and mine.

Her fingers fist in my shirt, yanking me closer like she can’t stand the space between us, like she’s starving too. And maybe she is, because the kiss turns frantic—teeth and tongue and hands wandering, grasping.

I back her toward the bed without breaking the kiss, my fingers sliding under her shirt, dragging up bare skin, and she arches into me like she’s been waiting for this. Forme.

The moment her knees hit the edge of the bed, she pulls away just enough to breathe, her lips slick and kiss-bitten, her eyes devouring me. “You gonna keep looking at me like that, or are you gonna do something about it?”

A dark laugh rumbles in my chest. “You’ve got no idea what you just asked for.”

I push her down onto the bed, crawl over her like the animal she’s made me, and her legs part for me like she wasalwaysmeant to do this.

No games. No pushing away. Just us.

And I’m going to ruin her for anyone else.

The moment her smile tips, wicked and knowing, and she pushes more of that heat—hissin, but soaked through with her magic—into me, it’s like the whole fucking world tilts sideways.

It’s not just lust. It's somethingbigger, heavier. Like gravity itself shifts around her. My skin prickles like it’s too tight, my blood thrums hard and low beneath it, a pulse pounding in my throat, my wrists, between my legs. It’s molten, devastating. A tidal wave dragging me under, and I don't want to be saved.

It'salwaysbeen like this with her—volatile, sharp, something that crawls under my skin and makes me want to peel myself apart just to get closer. But this? This is like being hollowed out and filled with nothing buther.No rage, no wrath, nothing but the ache she puts in me, like I was built to want her this way. Like the space in my chest was carved out only for her.

I lean over her, braced above her, breathing hard, and it’s not because I’m trying to resist. Her magic pulses in me like a second heartbeat. Hot. Throbbing. Every nerve ending screaming awake under her weight. It’s messy and consuming, and I want todrownin it.

I drag my thumb over her bottom lip, slow, savoring, and she parts for me like she was always meant to. Her eyes are dark, pupils blown, and there’s that smile again—dangerous and sweet, the kind that promises destruction and tastes like salvation.

“You feel that?” I murmur, my voice low, rough, nearly a growl. My forehead drops against hers because I need the anchor. “That’syou,Luna. That’s what you fucking do to me.”

She shivers, breath catching, and I smile because Ilovethat she’s not unaffected. I cup her jaw, my thumb skating across her cheekbone, and her skin is flushed, glowing like she’s lit from the inside out.

And when I kiss her again, it’s not desperate—it’s slow.Thorough.I kiss her like I’m learning her, like I’ll never get another chance, like the whole world could collapse and I wouldn’t care as long as I’m here, tasting her, sinking my fingers into her, feeling her magic pulse through every inch of me.

I drop to my knees in front of her, my hands sliding up her thighs slow, reverent, my lips tracing a line of heat along the inside of her knee, up to the edge of her shorts. She gasps, soft and sweet, and I look up at her through my lashes, letting her see every bit of the ruin she’s made of me.

“You’re gonna come undone for me tonight, sweetheart,” I murmur against her skin. “And I’m gonna make sure you never forget it.”

Her breath hitches, sharp and shallow, when I drag my mouth higher, lips brushing the inside of her thigh like a goddamn prayer. She’s already trembling beneath my hands, the bond between us humming so loud it feels like the whole damn world’s fallen away—just her, me, and this maddening need.

I glance up again, slow, deliberate, because I want her toseeme like this—on my knees, wrecked for her, willingly.

“Riven,” she whispers, breathless, and fuck, she says my name like it’s a promise, like she’s already undone and waiting to be devoured.

I grip the waistband of her shorts, tug them down her legs with a drag of my knuckles over her skin, slow enough to make her shiver, to make herwait.She steps out of them without hesitation, like she’s done handing me her pride, her resistance, like she wants me to take every last piece.

“Lie back,” I rasp, voice roughened to velvet sandpaper.

She does. Her hair spills across my pillows like ink, her lips parted, chest rising and falling too fast, pupils blown wide with something beyond desire—trust.And fuck me, that’s what’ll kill me first.

I slide my hands up her legs again, fingers dancing over her thighs, spreading them gently, reverently, until she’s bare in front of me. Until she’s panting for me and nothing else.

Her breath punches out of her lungs when I lean in and press my mouth to her, slow and savoring, my tongue flicking against her clit in soft, devastating circles. I can feel her body bow, her hips rocking against me like she’s unraveling and doesn’t even realize it.

Her fingers tangle in my hair, desperate and sweet, tugging me closer.

“Riven, please—”