The boardroom was a scream of alarms and shattering glass. Kai didn't wait for his security team. He kicked the mahogany table aside, sending expensive laptops flying, and scooped me into his arms.
The vibration inside me was no longer a hum—it was a frantic, electric pulse that made my vision blur. Every time the Silver Jewel throbbed, a bolt of white-hot lightning shot through my core, triggering the violet fire in my veins.
"Stay with me, Amara!" Kai roared over the chaos.
He didn't take me to the elevator; Lucian would be waiting there. He sprinted toward his private office, slamming the reinforced steel door and locking it with a biometric punch.
He dropped me onto his massive obsidian desk. I arched my back, my fingers clawing at the leather surface, my breath coming in jagged, desperate hitches. The charcoal silk of my gown was damp with sweat, clinging to my curves.
"Kai... it's burning... make it stop!" I sobbed.
"I have to get it out. Now." Kai's voice was a jagged rasp. He wasn't the composed CEO anymore. He was a man possessed.
He didn't use tools. He didn't have time for a medical team. He stepped between my legs, his hands trembling as he ripped the charcoal silk of my gown, exposing me completely to the cold air of the office. The contrast was a shock—the freezing room and the boiling fever inside me.
"Look at me," he commanded, his eyes burning into mine. "Focus on my voice, not the pain."
He moved with a ruthless, desperate urgency. His fingers, usually so controlled, were frantic as he reached for the source of the vibration. The moment he touched me, a jolt of electricity surged into him, but he didn't pull back. He growled, a primal, animalistic sound, and gripped my thighs to steady me.
"Please, Kai..." I gasped, my head thumping back against the desk as he worked to extract the vibrating device.
When the silver chain finally slid free, he threw it across the room. It hit the floor and exploded into a shower of sparks.
The silence that followed was deafening.
The vibration stopped, but the fire in my blood didn't. The "countdown" had been triggered, and my body was craving the only anchor it knew. I looked up at Kai, my violet eyes wide and hazy. My pulse was a hammer against my ribs.
Kai didn't move away. He stood between my legs, his chest heaving, his shirt torn open, staring at me like I was the only thing left in a burning world. The dominance was still there, but it had shifted into something hungrier, something more romantic and raw.
"You're okay," he whispered, his thumb grazing my inner thigh, tracing a path toward the heat he had just rescued. "I've got you."
"I... I can still feel the clock, Kai," I whispered, reaching up to grab his tie, pulling him down toward me. "The only way to slow it down... you said... it's your touch."
Kai's eyes darkened to a pitch-black void. He didn't need a second invitation. He crashed his lips against mine, a kiss that tasted of iron, scotch, and desperation. It wasn't a gentle kiss; it was a reclamation. His tongue fought mine for dominance, his hands wandering over my skin as if he were trying to memorize every inch of the weapon he had created.
He lifted me from the desk, my legs wrapping around his waist instinctively. He carried me to the velvet sofa, never breaking the kiss.
"I bought you to be a vessel," he muttered against my skin, his lips trailing down my throat to the pulsing violet veins. "But I think I'm the one who's trapped, Amara. I can't let you explode... because I'd go with you."
He laid me back, his hands roaming over my breasts, his thumbs raking over my nipples until I cried out his name. This wasn't a "punishment" or an "experiment." This was two monsters finding a way to survive the night.
He shed his clothes with a frantic energy I'd never seen from him. When he moved back over me, his skin was scorching. He entered me with a slow, deep thrust that made the world finally stop spinning.
The countdown slowed. The violet light in my eyes softened.
"Is that better?" he whispered, his pace picking up, his hips slamming against mine with a rhythmic, ruthless passion.
"Yes," I gasped, arching my back, my hands digging into the muscles of his back. "Don't stop... Kai, don't stop."
In that office, sixty floors above the city, with the sirens wailing below and his empire under siege, we drowned out the world. Every stroke was a promise; every moan was a surrender. It wasn't just sex; it was a biological necessity.
But as I reached my peak, my body shivering under his weight, I saw something over Kai's shoulder.
On his computer screen, which had been bypassed by Lucian, a new timer appeared.
00:59:59...
The countdown hadn't stopped. It had just entered its final hour.