"Nope. Nope nope nope."
Aiden backed away from the smoky projection like it might lunge at him, his heart hammering.
The frozen image of Lior Draeven's climax duel—bodies writhing, threads bursting—burned into his mind, as did the faint throb in his groin.
"I'm out. I'm done. Take it back."
Selene didn't move.
She arched one elegant brow, her violet eyes glinting with that maddening mix of amusement and menace. "You want to return the cursed eye embedded in your soul?"
"You can unbind it, right? You're a witch! Or evil! Or… something."
"I'm a profiler," she said, her voice smooth as silk over steel. "And I profiled you the second you tripped through that door, virgin, repressed, wildly unstable. High-risk, high-yield magical asset with a shame fetish."
"I don't have a shame fetish!" Aiden snapped, his face burning.
"Then stop blushing every time I breathe near you."
"I'm blushing because I'm scared, not—" He paused, flustered. "You know what, never mind."
He turned away, desperate to escape her gaze.
The Purity Eye flared.
Once.
Twice.
A pulse of heat shot down his spine, curling at the base of his neck, then lower, pooling deep in his gut, where his cock twitched traitorously.
The sensation was raw, invasive, like a finger tracing his nerves.
"What the—" he hissed, clutching his chest.
"There it is," Selene said softly, her lips curving into a wicked smirk.
He spun back to face her. "Why is my spine tingling?!"
"You're repressing the Eye's influence. It doesn't like that."
"It's lust magic! Of course I'm trying to repress it!"
Selene tilted her head, her raven hair spilling over one shoulder, the sigils on her thighs pulsing faintly under her skirt. "And yet here you are. Getting hard."
Aiden slapped his hands over his pants, mortified, the fabric straining against his erection. "This isn't me! It's the Eye!"
"Exactly."
She stepped closer, each click of her heels an intimate invasion. Her scent—roses, sweat, and dark honey—wrapped around him like a spell.
The air thickened, heavy with the promise of her nearness.
"Magic like this doesn't vanish just because you pretend it's not real," she murmured. "It builds. It festers. And eventually…"
She snapped her fingers. A static shock sparked between his thighs, sharp and electric, teasing the tip of his cock through his pants.
He gasped, knees buckling.
"That's not okay!"
"That's Lustcraft."
The Eye pulsed again, and his vision swam.
The walls shimmered, revealing threads of his own desire projected back at him.
Flashes—
Selene's sigil-marked skin, her lips brushing his ear.
The moaning girl in the mirror, her fingers slick and desperate.
His hand on her throat.
His mouth on Selene's thigh, tasting the glowing runes.
"NOPE." Aiden covered his right eye with both palms, shaking, his breath ragged. "I want to close it!"
"You can't," Selene said, her voice low and relentless. "Not unless you complete a thread."
"Meaning?"
Her smile could have melted iron. "Satisfy one. Follow a Lust Thread to its climax. Let the Eye discharge."
"That sounds like you're telling me to jerk off with consent," he said, voice cracking with equal parts horror and sarcasm.
"Magically speaking… yes."
"I am going to die here."
"Only if you deny it long enough."
Aiden collapsed back into the chair, panting, sweat soaking his collar.
His thighs ached, his cock throbbed, and the velvet seat felt like it was caressing him with every shift.
Selene leaned in, her blouse dipping just enough to reveal the glowing sigil between her breasts, pulsing in time with his racing heart.
"The Eye is like a virgin," she whispered, her breath warm against his ear. "The longer it stays untouched, the more unstable it becomes."
He groaned, burying his face in his hands.
"Of course it is."