Page 53 of The Alien's Vicious Starflash Manor

As we turn across the floor, as her body begins to sync with mine, I find myself wondering—not for the first time—if there might have been another way. If in some other life, she might have come to me willingly.

Those thoughts are poison. I have a duty. A purpose.

So why does holding her like this feel so dangerously right?

“You’re fighting the rhythm,” I say as she stumbles slightly.

“Weren’t you supposed to have the control just then?” She sounds suspiciously breathless.

Control I’m rapidly losing, with her warm and pliant against me. The scent of her hair fills my lungs—citrus and stardust and sunshine. Everything I can never have.

Everything I must eventually destroy.

My fingers flex against her waist, and she stumbles slightly.

The ribbons at her wrists pulse in time with my heartbeat, binding us together in ways that go beyond mere magic. Beyond plans and prophecies and the fate of my frozen world.

When she looks up at me through dark lashes, I know I’m lost.

Damned.

Saved. The word whispers through me.

Her hands rest against my chest, and the heat of her touch burns through layers of carefully constructed control.

I wonder if she can feel how my heart races beneath her touch. Wonder if she knows what she does to me, how she makes me question everything I’ve worked for.

How she leads me to a betrayal of composure that would horrify my Ice Court compatriots.

Jonyk and his court would never allow such an alliance. The very thought would be enough to see us both executed. And that's only part of why I must remove him from the throne. Only part of why I need her to play her role in my carefully crafted plans.

Plans that grow more impossible with each beat of my traitorous heart.

But there is no court here.

No witnesses to my weakness except the portraits of my ancestors glaring down at us with frozen disapproval.

Just us, and the dance, and all the reasons this is a terrible idea.

Her scent fills my lungs until I can barely breathe past the need consuming me. She should smell wrong to my Icecaix senses. Instead, she calls to something inside me, something that recognizes her as mine despite all logic and duty saying otherwise.

When she lifts her face to mine, a stray beam of starlight shines on her face, and something molten stirs in my chest. I know I should turn away. Should remember my duty, my purpose, all the reasons I cannot allow myself to feel anything for her.

Instead, I bend to meet her, drawn by a gravity stronger than duty or destiny.

My magic surges beneath my skin, frost patterns blooming across the floor in spiraling fractals that mirror the chaos in my blood.

Despite knowing I shouldn't.

Despite knowing this can only end in betrayal.

Despite knowing I will eventually destroy everything we might become.

My lips brush hers, and the world explodes into golden fire.

The kiss starts gentle—has to start gentle, or I'll shatter us both. Has to start careful, or I'll lose what remains of my control and take everything she offers until there's nothing left of either of us but this burning need.

But then Lara makes a sound low in her throat, desperate and hungry, and what little remains of my restraint splinters. The noise vibrates through me, awakening something ancient and possessive that cares nothing for duty or destiny or carefully laid plans.

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