The tension that had been building between them for weeks finally snapped like a wire stretched too thin. There was no room left for intellectual fencing or the measured silence.
Mike, sensing the exact moment her resolve crumbled, abandoned the slow burn for a sudden, predatory grace.
'Now's the time you say...? Hell yeah... let's go fuck this landlady and make her the first to get claimed by Mike Hawk!'
He didn't wait for permission; he acted on the inevitability he'd spent the entire evening orchestrating. His hand came out, fingers clenching hard into the nape of her neck, possessive and commanding.
Before she could utter another witty defense or a final warning, he jerked her forward, closing the gap with a raw, hungry intensity.
When his lips crashed against hers, it wasn't a tentative exploration, but it was a claim. It was the kiss of a man who knew exactly what he wanted and how to take it.
