The coffee cup hit the side table with a sharp clink. Two hands closed around Kyle's shoulders and lifted him off the sofa cushion. Before his brain could process what was happening, he was sitting in Scarlett's lap, his back against her chest, her arms locked around him like a cage made of warm steel.Her mouth pressed against his.The kiss was not gentle. It was not romantic. It was firm, deliberate, and carried the focused precision of a woman who had decided something and was executing it without hesitation. Her lips pressed against his hard enough to stop the tears, hard enough to stop the words, hard enough to stop everything inside his skull from spinning for the first time in days.She pulled back after three seconds. Her golden eyes stared down at him from six inches away, and for the first time since Kyle had met her, there was something burning behind them. Not curiosity. Not calculation. Something alive and hot and barely controlled."I never agreed to a divorce." Scarlett

Kyle held Scarlett's narrowing gaze and felt his survival instincts kick into overdrive. The question hung in the air between them like a blade balanced on its tip.Who touched you?His brain cycled through seventeen lies in two seconds flat and landed on the only one that had a chance of working."Nobody touched me." Kyle kept his voice steady and slightly offended, the tone of a man falsely accused. "I asked because of something Derek's wife said. Nadia. When we were trading contact info this morning."Scarlett's golden eyes did not blink. "What did she say?""She said that beastwomen who feel unappreciated by their husbands sometimes get tempted away by other men." Kyle shrugged, the gesture loose and casual despite the fact that his heart was beating fast enough to power a generator. "She was warning me. Basically told me that if I keep treating my wives like garbage, one of them might bond with someone outside the marriage. I just wanted to know if that was actually possible."Sc

"I was not building toward anything! I was genuinely scared! That six star corpse peeled off its own face, Scarlett! It wore Riley like a suit! A person can be traumatized and also want physical comfort without it meaning they want to, to, I mean, that's a very large assumption and I am frankly offended that you would..."Scarlett's hand closed around his wrist. She pulled him back into her arms with one smooth motion, and Kyle's back settled against her chest like a key sliding into a lock. Her arms wrapped around him from behind, solid and warm, and her chin rested on the top of his head."Stop talking," Scarlett said.Kyle stopped talking.Her finger found the glowing bird mark on his collarbone and traced its outline slowly, the way someone traces a name they have memorized by heart. The warmth from her touch spread through his skin and into his chest, and the hammering in his ribcage began to slow."Contract marks follow a fixed order in Fairview," Scarlett said, her voice settli

"You tricked me first." Scarlett tilted her head. "The tears. The sleeve tugging. The broken voice about signing my divorce papers. You manipulated me into breaking my composure so you could test where you stood. I simply let you think it worked.""But you kissed me! You pulled me onto your lap!""Because you needed to be kissed." Scarlett said it the way someone says water is wet. "And because you were never going to make the first move on your own. You are a coward, Kyle Cole. A clever, entertaining, surprisingly resourceful coward, but a coward all the same. Left to your own devices, you would have spent six more months tugging sleeves and crying fake tears."Kyle opened his mouth to argue and nothing came out."Now," Scarlett said, settling onto the mist beside him with the relaxed posture of someone lying on a hammock on a summer afternoon, "stop complaining. You got exactly what you were building toward.""I was building toward a shared sofa!" Kyle's voice went up two octaves. "

Kyle was still staring at the three star reading on his terminal when the screen flashed white three times in quick succession. Three separate notification banners dropped down from the top of the display, stacking on top of each other like cards being dealt.Rank Up Reward: Two Star Threshold Cleared. Claim your bonus box.Rank Up Reward: Three Star Threshold Cleared. Claim your bonus box.Special Unlock: Mission Tier Advanced. One bonus equipment box available."Three boxes?" Kyle tapped the first notification and looked at Scarlett, who was leaning against the doorframe in her silk robe with a cup of coffee that had appeared from nowhere. "I skipped two star entirely and the system is still giving me the reward for it?""The terminal tracks every threshold crossed, regardless of speed." Scarlett sipped her coffee. "You passed through two star on your way to three. The system logged it.""So I get two rewards for the price of one night." Kyle grinned. "Best deal I've ever made.""Do