Warning: Mature content in the chapter
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Kieran:
I had faced a thousand battles in my life - some with rogues, some with words, and many within my own mind.
But nothing, nothing, had ever left me as disarmed as the moment her palm settled on my thigh.
The air inside the car shifted instantly - thick, charged, trembling. The low hum of the engine filled the silence, and yet I could hear her every breath, every hesitant heartbeat.
My fingers tightened on the steering wheel. One wrong move and I would veer off the road, not because I had lost focus on the world, but because she had become the only world I could see.
"Evaline," I managed, my voice barely a whisper. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to warn her or beg her to continue with the sick idea she had come up with out of the blue.
She didn't answer... she didn't need to. The warmth of her hand slid just a little higher, slow, deliberate, as though testing both her courage and mine.
