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“No. I mean. Maybe. I don’t know. Your abs are really… abs.”

He finally lets out a low, amused breath, like he’s been holding it in. “You’re staring.”

“You’re going to be shirtless!”

“You’ve seen me naked.”

“Right, but now I get to look.”

He rises slowly, one hand still wrapped around my hip, the other brushing my stomach. He doesn’t touch skin yet, just hovers, his mouth inches from mine.

“So look.”

Oh, gods.

I do. And it’s humiliating how I moan at the sight of him up close.

But he’s still wearing his shirt—dark, fitted, irritatingly intact. Which feels like a crime. A very personal offense.

“You’re—” I flail. “—still wearing too much.”

He arches a brow. “Am I?”

“I’m trying to focus, but your clothes are... interrupting my process.”

His mouth curves. “And what exactly is your process?”

“Undress. Immediately. Please.”

His hands go to the hem of his shirt, slow and smooth, and he pulls it up in one fluid motion. The muscles of his stomach flex as the fabric lifts, revealing skin marked with ink and scars and the kind of lean strength that should be illegal. My braincompletely blanks out. Words? Gone. Morality? Gone. Dignity? Never met her.

He tosses the shirt aside. “Better?”

I can’t answer. I’m too busy staring at his abs like I’ve just been handed a divine revelation. My mouth opens. Closes. I try to say something appropriately seductive and instead blurt out:

“You look like someone carved you from vengeance and sex.”

He pauses. Then slowly, slowly leans in, voice pitched low and sinful. “Is that your way of saying I’m handsome?”

“I’m saying you look like a very smart library ghost who could absolutely wreck me.”

He laughs again, rougher this time. “Luna.”

“Gods, say it again.”

“Your name?”

I nod. Desperate. Embarrassing.

“Luna,” he murmurs, dragging the word like silk over skin.

My knees actually give out.

“I don’t know how to do this without being deeply unsexy,” I whisper.

“You’re already perfect,” he says. “Every bit of you. Every ridiculous, breathless, unhinged thing you say.”

He kisses me then.