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“Never,” I admit easily, letting my fingers slide a little lower across her stomach, casual and deliberate. “You should know by now, Luna. I don’t let go of things I want.”

She huffs something that might be a laugh, but it’s soft and jagged at the edges. Not sweet. Not easy.

“I think you like the chase more than the catch,” she says, voice dry, cutting. “It’s never about the prize—it’s about watching them squirm.”

I grin, sharp and pleased, because she’s not wrong. Not entirely.

“You say that like you’re not squirming right now,”

“You mistake survival for squirming,” she says quietly. “I’ve learned how to live with men like you.”

I smile wider, leaning in until my mouth almost brushes the line of her jaw.

“No, darling,” I murmur, voice sinking lower, silk over steel. “You’ve learned how to live despite men like me. That’s why you’re interesting.”

She doesn't flinch. Doesn't shy away.

Instead, she holds my gaze for one long, pointed second.

Then she smiles—slow, sharp, dangerous.

“You should be careful,” she says softly, like she’s already sealed something between us. “You might not like what happens when I stop surviving you and start choosing you.”

The wind pulls strands of her hair loose, tangling them across her shoulders, and I want to reach forward, wrap my fingers around them, make her look at me again. Instead, I lean in, my mouth grazing just behind her ear, voice low and deliberate.

“Would you?” I ask, keeping my voice even, careful. “Choose me?”

She doesn’t answer right away. It’s deliberate. A negotiation. A challenge.

Then she glances back, her smile sharp, cutting, dangerous. “That depends, Ambrose. Do you want me to?”

I lean in closer, tightening my arm around her waist so she can’t pretend to miss the weight of me, the way I’ve anchored her here against me, like I’d keep her if I could.

“I don’t want you to,” I murmur, my voice like velvet wrapped around steel. “I need you to.”

The words are quiet. Measured. But they feel like they cost something. She stills. Just for a breath.

I drag my mouth lower, close enough that she can feel every syllable when I speak again. “I’ve spent my entire life taking what I want, Luna. Twisting the world until it bends beneath me. But you…”

I trail the back of my fingers up the curve of her waist, slow, deliberate, like I can map every place she’s already sunk beneath my skin.

“You’re the one thing I can’t force. I hate it.”

I let the last word curl sharp between us like a blade.

“Because it means when you choose me, it’ll be real.”

She breathes in, sharp, shaky, but I don’t give her a chance to answer. I lean in, my mouth brushing the corner of hers, not quite a kiss, but enough to make her chase it if she wants.

“Choose me,” I murmur, voice rough now, edged with something dangerous. “I’ll make sure you never regret it.”

For a heartbeat, she doesn’t move.

Then she glances at me again, her eyes sharp and dark, something dangerous curling in the corners of her mouth.

“I think you’d ruin me,” she says softly.

I smile, slow and wicked. “I know.”