Sophia Sullivan froze at the sudden kiss.
This was different from before.
It carried raw aggression.
Her back pressed against the cold wall.
Trapped.
The chill seeped through her thin blouse.
Yet her skin burned.
Ethan Sullivan cradled her head.
His other hand steadied her slipping waist.
Their heated breaths tangled.
Dizzying.
His thigh pinned her knees.
Barely keeping her upright.
She wasn't one to surrender.
Even as the kiss threatened to drown her.
She bit down hard.
Iron flooded their mouths.
"Ethan, have you lost your mind?"
She couldn't fathom his recklessness.
His low chuckle held self-mockery.
"Better mad than pushed away."
CEO of Breeze Perfumes.
Heir to the Sullivan empire.
A man who made underworld lords tremble.
Now kneeling at her feet.
Sophia stayed silent.
He'd crossed the line.
Yet she felt like the betrayer.
This kiss changed everything.
Their playful rivalry.
Now fraught with complications.
"I don't understand you."
Her voice turned glacial.
She had ways to make him regret this.
"Forgive me."
His voice roughened.
Slowly releasing her.
The crimson fading from his eyes.
Restraint regained.
"Consider me insane."
Blood stained his lips.
Veins standing stark on his hands.
Dangerously alluring.
Even he couldn't explain.
Why she unraveled him.
Being kept at arm's length was unacceptable.
"Just tell me one thing - do you despise me?"
He wiped the blood away.
His usually controlled face now devastatingly tempting.
Laying his cards bare.
Sophia frowned.
Despise?
The kiss lingered between them.
Even violence couldn't sever it.
As a lover...
He'd be perfection.
But she'd only ever used him.
Getting close to Emma and Grandma Sullivan.
All for her investigation.
Yet her chest ached strangely.
"I don't despise you. But that changes nothing."
Truth laid bare.
Even after discovering his secrets.
No revulsion came.
Only fascination with his contradictions.
"Let's pretend this never happened."
"We remain business partners."
"Once your grandmother recovers..."
He knew what came next.
Parting ways.
The irony stung - he'd sworn never to fall.
Yet Sophia became his exception.
From their first encounter.
Doomed to this obsession.
"Sophia."
Her name weighted on his tongue.
His tall frame half-shrouded in shadows.
Breeze tousling his short hair.
Silence thick with synchronized heartbeats.
"Tell me how to court you properly."
"..."