Page 25 of Our Radiant Embers

“Going down?” I echoed, my forced calm trickling away by the second. Man, the lofty air he must be breathing—amazing. “Remember how the government could have awarded the project to only you, except they didn’t? Because I do.”

“People love rooting for an underdog.”

“Or maybe your concept just wasn’t that good.” I grinned. “Little tweaks here and there? Cute.”

Adam exhaled through his teeth, and I glimpsed his magic twitching like a nervous cat. With anyone else, I might have been worried they’d lose their hold. With him? Not at all. Even back in school, his control had been impressive, and the way his magic coiled around him now, ready to obey, surpassed anything I’d seen.

So I doubled down. “I guess that in the end, they wanted to bring some true innovation to the table. And that’s just not the Harrington way.”

“You have no idea how much I want to punch you sometimes.” It was a tight murmur, Adam’s eyes narrowed, his entire focus on me. His attention buzzed under my skin, fight or flight, my grin widening. God, I’d love to take him down a peg. I’d also love to get him out of that stupidly well-fitting shirt, to get my teeth on his throat and see if it still made him melt into me.

Bad idea.

“It’s mutual,” I said.

“Fuck you,” he gritted out, and I laughed hollowly.

“Oh, honey. You wish I would.”

Low blow. I realised it at the same time as his shoulders tensed, brow furrowing. God, he was hot.

“That,” he said in a low growl, “was out of line.”

Abort.

“So you don’t want me to bend you over this desk?” I asked, all friendly curiosity. “Never thought about my mouth on your dick? I’d make it good, you know.”

His gaze flitted to my lips, and Christ, what was I doing? Playing with fire, literally. Also, he was damn near engaged—although I suspected it was more complicated than that, and anyway, that hadn’t stopped us the first time.

“You’re so…” He didn’t finish, waving one hand in a vague arch that could mean anything.

“Hot?” I suggested. “Able to fuck your brains out?”

“Frustrating.” Yet he was still staring at me as though I held the answer to a question he didn’t dare ask. I flicked through layers of reality to catch sparks of bright gold in the orange glow that enveloped him. Fuck, his control was magnificent. Good enough to touch me with nothing but the tendrils of his magic? Heat slithered up my spine at just the thought.

He was close. If I grabbed him right now, pulled him in…

“That’s a lie,” I told him, quiet but sure. “You’re a second from dropping to your knees for me.”

His scoff couldn’t mask the faint flush to his cheeks. “How do you not choke on all that arrogance?”

“I’d rather see you choke on my dick.” I hadn’t planned to say that, but it was true. Last time, it had been too dark to make out the details. A repeat here, in his sun-flooded office? God, it would fuel my fantasies for years to come.

He stared at me and swallowed. Silence stretched thick like a rubber band, nearly physical in its intensity. I could take it back, laugh it off. ‘What—you thought I meant it? I’m not drunk today, man.’ I could pretend I’d only said it to knock him off balance.

I didn’t.

He swallowed again, his eyes flicking down to my mouth and back up. When he finally spoke, his voice came out soft and a little raspy. “You didn’t say please.”

If I did, he might shoot me down.

Would he, though? Yeah, it would be a victory of sorts—but he wanted me. I could read it in how his pupils had gone wide, the way he was leaning towards me ever so slightly, in how his breathing seemed a tad shallow. When I reached for his wrist, he blinked, drugged-slow, lips parting on a quiet rush of exhaled air. His pulse was hammering under my touch.

Another moment of silence, time suspended between us.

Then I smiled and held his eyes. “Please.”

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