Celeste's fingers lingered against my jaw, trembling with the effort of restraint. Her amber eyes weren't just hungry—they were devout, wide with the terrifying realization that the deity she'd summoned was real and within reach.
The warmth of her touch bled through my skin like liquid sunlight, igniting every nerve-ending the System had rewired for exactly this purpose. Her thumb swept along my cheekbone, tracing the rigid line of muscle beneath, mapping the topography of power she craved to worship.
"Show me," she breathed again, the words dissolving against my lips. Her voice had shed its gallery-host polish, leaving something raw and fractured underneath. Need.
