Page 339 of Scarlet Wars
“A chance to be heard,” I said, as the anger dulled now into something rougher, “is not something you’re owed, Miss Sinclair. It’s something youearn.”
She didn’t back down. “Then let me earn it.”
I don’t know who moved first.
Maybe it was me, leaning in without meaning to, caught in the gravity of her. Or maybe it was her, tired of waiting, tired of pretending she didn’t feel it too.
Either way, one second there was air between us, and the next, her mouth was on mine.
It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t sweet.
It was a collision. Teeth, heat, desperation. The kind of kiss that tasted like anger and grief and everything we’d never say. Her hands fisted in my shirt, yanking me closer with a force that said she didn’t care if this ended in ruin, as long as itfelt.
And I didn’t stop her.
My hands buried in her hair, pulling just enough to make her gasp. Her body slammed against mine, all sharp edges and soft curves, and I felt her hips press forward, a challenge, a dare, a need.
We moved like we’d been here before. Like our bodies remembered a fire our minds refused to admit. She kissed like she was trying to win a fight. And maybe I was letting her. Maybe I wanted her to.
Her teeth grazed my lower lip. I groaned into her mouth, one hand sliding down her back, anchoring her to me.
For one breathless, dangerous moment, there was no past, no pain, only this. Onlyher.
And then—too fast, too hard—I tore myself away. Panting. Reeling. Staring at her like I’d just stepped off the edge of something I could never climb back from.
She looked at me, lips swollen, chest heaving, eyes wide, dark and burning.
Fuck.She looked so fucking hot. Too hot. Too close. Too much.
And somehow, like a memory I couldn’t remember. As if the kiss had cracked open a door in my mind, enough to feel the echo of something I couldn’t quite reach.
“Whoareyou?” I breathed, the words slipping out before I could stop them, my mind flashing back to what she’d quoted to me after Stephen died.
Her expression shifted. A flicker of something unreadable passed through her eyes.
“That’s not a story for today,” she said quietly.
I swallowed hard, the fire in my chest collapsing into ash. Regret surged up before I could stop it, like tar in my chest.
What the hell had I just done?
I took a step back, suddenly cold, suddenly hollow.
“You should go,” I said, voice hoarse, barely holding together.
She clenched her jaw, her gaze steady.
“I will. For now,” she said. Then, softer, warmer than I expected, but no less certain. “But James…this is something you cannot outrun. Any more than you can outrun who you’re meant to be.”
“Wanna bet?” I muttered, already turning away, retreating behind the walls I’d spent years perfecting, rebuilding them faster than she could ever tear them down.
Cara walked to the door, her steps slow, like she wasn’t done, like she had more to say but was choosing not to.
Right before she slipped out, she turned to face me one last time.
“When the ground gives way beneath you,” she said, sounding all calm and clear, “I’ll be there to hold your foundation steady.Aleksander.”
The door clicked shut behind her, leaving me frozen as my real name echoed in the quiet.
