CHAPTER SIX
714 Words
SEAN’S POV
Neither of us spoke for a long stretch of time. The heavy bass from the main floor bled through the glass paneling, muffled into a distant, rhythmic hum.
Lilith rested her elbows on her knees, her gaze fixed on the dark wood floorboards between us. I found my eyes drifting back to her—to the sharp line of her collarbone, the guarded posture that was only just beginning to fracture.
"You do that a lot," she murmured softly.
"Do what?"
"Watch people when you think they aren't paying attention."
I leaned back against the deep leather of the chair. "You noticed."
"I observe things, too."
A faint, dry smile tugged at my lips. "Evidently."
She turned her head to face me.
Our eyes locked, and the static air in the room seemed to charge. It wasn't a sudden, dramatic shift—there was no swell of music, no convenient interruption to break the spell. Just a quiet, magnetic contraction of the space between us.
Her dark eyes dipped to my mouth.
It lasted for less than a second. But I caught it. And by the subtle hitch in her breath, she knew I had.
Neither of us moved.
"You should probably go meet your associate," she whispered, the words barely carrying over the muffled bass.
"I should."
"But you aren't going to."
"No."
Her eyes rose back to mine, searching. "Why?"
I could have offered a dozen logical, socially acceptable evasions. None of them would have been honest.
"Because I don't want to."
Her breathing shallowings instantly.
I reached out, my movement slow, deliberate—giving her every fraction of a second to pull back, to set up that pristine armour once again.
She didn't move.
My knuckles brushed a stray lock of dark hair away from her cheekbone. Her eyelashes fluttered, and she closed her eyes, leaning infinitely into the heat of my hand.
That single, silent surrender was all the permission I required.
I leaned in and kissed her.
It wasn't hurried. It wasn't careless. It was an excruciatingly slow, measured press of lips—the kind of kiss that afforded both of us entirely too much time to calculate the risk and turn back.
She didn't turn back. Instead, her fingers curled tight into the lapel of my jacket, dragging me closer, anchoring herself to me.
The second kiss stripped away the caution. It became deeper, firmer, threaded with a quiet desperation neither of us had voiced.
When I finally pulled back, her eyes remained closed for a suspended heartbeat, her lips parted, her chest rising and falling.
"That was a terrible idea," she whispered to the space between us.
I watched the flush on her skin. "Probably."
She opened her eyes, dark and heavy. "You aren't being very persuasive."
"I wasn't attempting to persuade you."
A genuine, breathless smile touched her lips.
There it was. The smile I’d spent the last hour trying to coax out of the shadows. Only this time, I was the sole reason for it.
Against my ribs, my phone vibrated in a harsh, persistent rhythm. Ethan.
I didn't even bother pulling it out.
Lilith's glance flicked toward my coat pocket. "Your friend?"
"He'll survive."
"You're going to make him wait in the rain?"
"I'll deal with his indignation tomorrow."
A low, soft laugh escaped her. "Are you going to lay the blame on me?"
"I haven't blamed you for anything."
"Yet."
I let out a quiet breath. "Yet."
She turned her head toward the expanse of rain-streaked glass, watching the sprawling grid below, before looking back at me.
"Do you usually do this?" she asked softly.
"Do what?"
"Ignore every rule you've set for yourself just to stay?"
I considered the question, weighing the thousands of nights I had prioritized discipline, schedules, and clinical precision above everything else.
"Never," I said truthfully.
Her expression softened, the final layer of her defense melting away. "Neither do I."
Silence settled over the room once more, but the tension was gone. It no longer felt uncertain or guarded. It felt like a conscious, deliberate choice.
And when her hand moved across the space between us, her cold fingers wrapping around mine, I knew neither of us had any intention of making the sensible decision tonight.
- Writer
