Eliana bit her lip, warmth blooming across her brown skin under the weight of his gaze. The air between them thickened, humming with something unspoken and dangerously familiar. She should pull away. She knew that. Retreat into the safety she'd built brick by brick. But her body, traitorous thing, leaned into the sensation—the hormones, the exhaustion, the love she'd tried to bury flickering back to life like stubborn embers refusing to die.
"Fine," she muttered, surrendering just enough to be dangerous as her feet slipped back into his lap. "But only for a minute. And stop with the charm. It's not working."
He hummed, amused, his thumbs pressing into a sore spot with infuriating precision. A soft, involuntary sigh escaped her before she could stop it.
