The honey brown of his eyes warmed, and she knew he was about to say something lascivious. He took a step closer. “If you didn’t like it, we don’t ever have to do that again. We don’t ever have to do anything you don’t like.”

“You know I liked it. I like everything you do. That’s the problem.”

“How is that a problem? That’s the point. The fact that we’re magic together. The fact that we can’t get enough of each other.”

“Vansh! That’s not how we were supposed to do this. You were upset with me because I didn’t want your family to know. You practically told them.”

“I’ll take it back. This won’t happen again.” He looked scared and it ratcheted up the fear in her own heart.

She couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t let fear become the center of her life again. “We were never supposed to have this conversation. You promised that we wouldn’t have to.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have embarrassed you like that. Not in a public place.”

“Vansh. Don’t make this ugly. You know that’s not what I’m talking about. You did not embarrass me. Not when . . .”

He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, his touch sending a zing through her body as it always did. “When I made you come.”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you ever say it?”

His thumb on the shell of her ear, that was it, that was their only point of contact, and yet her entire body felt alive, fevered with hunger.

“Say what?”

“That I make you come like no one ever has. That your body is obsessed with mine. That you ache with the memories of the things I make you feel. That you wake up in the middle of the night touching yourself from how I make you feel.”

“Is that what I am to you? Bragging rights? Look how obsessed I’ve made her. I’ve possessed her body and soul. I’m inside her all the time. That’s what this is to you.” She pushed away from him and went into the bedroom.

He followed. “No. That’s all you want this to be to me, but it’s not.” He took a step closer to her, eyes filled with need. “Have I? Have I possessed you body and soul? Am I inside you all the time?”

Without answering, she left her bedroom. That was not a room she could do this in, and she had to do this.

Vansh was light. She couldn’t let him in a little bit. She couldn’t contain him in a corner of her life. He’d get everywhere. He’d take over everything.

“No, you’re not. Because if I let you in, you’ll become all of me. There will be no more me left.”