“I know this is not what you expected to hear,” she said, breaking the silence between them, her words deliberate, her tone unwavering. “But this is what I am willing to compromise at the moment, considering the circumstances and the situation that we are both in.”
Kaius let out a sharp breath through his nose, still pacing, his mind whirling, trying to process, trying to understand how she could be so calm about this, how she could propose something so… so utterly reckless, so impossible.
“You don’t need to give me an answer tonight,” she added, watching him closely.
He stopped, finally looking at her, his eyes burning with something raw, something dangerous, something she wasn’t sure she wanted to name. The shock was still visible in his gaze, his chest rising and falling with the for
