The thunder faded into the distance, leaving only the rain behind.
It filled the room with sound—steady, heavy, impossible to ignore. The lights from the city flickered through the windows, shadows stretching and shrinking with every passing second. Asher stood a few feet away from me, his body rigid, his jaw tight like he was holding himself together by force alone.
Neither of us spoke.
I could still feel his mouth on my neck. The warmth. The way my body had responded before my mind could catch up. My skin hummed with awareness, every nerve ending awake, unsettled, unfinished.
“This isn’t just business,” I said quietly.
He exhaled through his nose, slow and controlled. “Elara—”
“No,” I interrupted, standing up fully now. My legs were steady even though my heart wasn’t. “Enough.”
Th
