The world did not slow down. It shattered.
His lips were not an invitation. They were a claim, an answer, a desperate, hungry punctuation to every unsaid word that had crackled between them for months. The heat of it incinerated the softness she might have imagined. This scene was not gentle. This incident was a conflagration.
His hands, still cradling her face, tilted her head, his thumbs anchoring her as his mouth moved over hers with a possessiveness that stole the breath from her lungs and the strength from her knees. The careful resistance she’d built, brick by icy brick, didn't crumble—it vaporized. A sound, a mixture of a gasp and a sob, escaped her throat and found its way into his mouth.
Oh, God. Xavier.
Her thoughts dissolved into sensation. The taste of him—dark coffee and w
