Reina's lips trembled, caught between denial and surrender. Renji's breath teased the shell of her ear, his voice dripping with authority and hunger.
"Stop running," he murmured. "You don't need to anymore. Not with me."
Her entire body jolted at his words. She had spent years holding herself together, years walling her desire behind her uniform, her professional smile, her role as the school nurse. No one had ever seen past it, until him.
Her resistance cracked.
Renji pulled her closer, his hand sliding from her wrist up to her jaw, tilting her face toward him. She didn't stop him this time. Her eyes, wide and wet, locked on his.
Then his lips claimed hers.
It wasn't soft, wasn't tentative, it was a kiss that devoured, that stripped away excuses. Her gasp was swallowed instantly, her body arching into him as though starved. His tongue pressed past her lips, and hers met it with desperate, clumsy hunger.
The System pulsed violently inside Renji's head.
