Maybe,” I heard myself say quietly, “I’m the only one who gets to decide that.”
His eyes locked on mine.
Whatever leash he’d just rewrapped around his curse, he wasn’t holding it nearly as tight around himself now.
He leaned in.
Slowly, like he didn’t quite trust himself if he moved any faster.
His nose brushed mine.
His breath mingled with mine, warm, smelling faintly of coffee and something wilder underneath.
The world shrank to the curve of his mouth, the roughness of his thumb, the steady, thrumming awareness that I was now both the thing calming his monster and the thing it clawed toward.
My heart pounded.
Every instinct I had screamed three different things at once:
*Run.*
*Hit him.*
*Kiss him.*
His lips hovered a whisper from mine.
I could feel the ghost of a contact t
