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I lifted my hands, knowing I had the power in them to cool her. In fact, my entire body was cool to the touch. I imagined my tongue like an ice cube being trailed down her throat.

I wanted to stay, but I couldn’t. Not with my cock alive and awake and pressing firmly against the seam of my trousers. If I sat next to her, I’d want to touch her. And if by some miracle she allowed me to touch her, then…

“It’s been a long night. We can start our investigation tomorrow.”

I turned to leave, but Cora called out, “Wait!”

I mumbled a silent curse. Just go, Yves. Leave. But instead, I stopped. Slowly, not trusting myself, I turned around. “Yes?”

“I won’t be able to sleep,” she admitted.

Silence followed. And in that silence, I heard the sound of her heart pounding. I heard the blood singing a siren song in her veins. My mouth salivated, and hunger burned a hot trail down my throat. One bite, one taste, and afterward, she’d fall into the most blissful sleep of her life.

This woman wanted me. Not as badly as I wanted her, but the desire was there. I could taste it. I drank the flavor down like a drunkard, and my body reacted in kind. Every part of me was ready to satisfy her desire.

Cora stood, and the dressing gown fell off her shoulders completely, landing on the floor.

I began listing the parts of a ship in my head to stop myself from doing something foolish because the gods had never created a more beautiful creature.

Slowly, she closed the distance between us. When we were a breath apart, she set her hand on mine, and I had to grit my teeth to keep from lifting it to my mouth and beginning something that couldn’t be undone.

“Thank you.”

“I’m just doing my duty,” I said tightly. I went to pull away, but she held me in place.

“What time should I be prepared for the day to begin?”

I licked the corner of my mouth. The need to taste her, to take her, was overwhelming. Couldn’t she see how close I was to losing control? I needed to leave.

“Severin will be around to help acquaint you with Adrien’s schedule.”

At the mention of my nephew’s name, her face crumpled into a frown. It wasn’t the answer she wanted, but it was all I had. I had set my grief aside, but I still wasn’t ready to set Emmaline aside.

“Until we see each other again,” I said, lifting my hand to touch her cheek, but stopping short of actually doing so. “Faites de beaux rêves.”

A wish for good dreams.

I made for the door.

“I’d say the same,” Cora began as I turned the knob, “but…considering you don’t sleep…”

I closed the door and drew in a breath of air that wasn’t tainted with her pheromones, then ran at full speed back to my apartments.

I’d been trying very hard to keep my promise to myself. I told myself it was unconscionable to want anyone besides my mate, and that these feelings for Cora were based on a lack of intimacy. All she’d done was touch my hand. Her soft, bare fingers on mine.

It had pushed me over the edge.

I closed the door to my bedroom and leaned against it. My hand ran along the front seam of my trousers, and I gritted my teeth. I was painfully hard. I imagined what could’ve happened if I’d stayed in that room. If I’d locked the door instead of leaving. If I’d pinned her against the wall. Then I squeezed my cock and groaned.

I shouldn’t indulge this fantasy.

But fuck it.

I pulled myself free, taking my touch-starved cock in my hand and stifling another moan as I worked it up and down with the hand she’d touched. Feeling the last traces of her warmth seep into my arousal.

Up and down. Again and again. Beads of warmth dripped down my length, over the metal piercings, making me slick with wetness that I imagined was hers.

She could keep her name from me, but not her desire. She wanted me. The words kept replaying in my head, along with the image of her tight nipples.