A shaky laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it.
I reached automatically for my gloves — and then froze.
Slowly, deliberately, I let my hands fall back into my lap.
Bare.
I met his eyes.
“I want to touch you, Ash,” I whispered. The admission felt like stepping out into open air. “I want to so badly. That’s the problem. I shouldn’t. It’s dangerous.”
“What if I want you to try?” he asked, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
“How can you?” The panic flared again. “You’ve seen what I can do. You’ve seen what happens when I lose control.”
He shrugged, like the answer had always been obvious.
“I trust you.”
The certainty in his voice unsettled me more than doubt would have.
“Do it again,” he said, his eyes bright now — not reckless, but hopeful.
I stared at him as though he’d just suggested stepping off a cliff for fun.
“You don’t understand,” I whispered. “If it surges, I don’t know how to stop it once it starts.”
His expression softened. He shifted slightly closer — not invading, just near enough that I could feel the warmth radiating from him.
“Then we don’t start big,” he said gently. “Just my hand. Nothing else.”
“That’s not how it works. It’scontact,Ash.”
“Maybe it has been in the past,” he said, steady and entirely serious. “But this isn’t about power. It’s about you and me.”
My hands curled into fists in my lap, my pulse hammering so hard it made me dizzy.
“Tell me what to do,” I said.
His breath caught — not in victory, but reverence.
“Okay,” he said slowly. “We’ll do it together.”
He lifted one hand, palm up, and held it there between us. Not touching me. Not even close.
“Don’t grab me,” he said. “Just… rest your fingers. If you feel anything change — heat, pressure, fear — you stop. I won’t move. I won’t pull away.”
I shook my head. “Ash—”
“I know,” he said gently. “This is my choice.”
The room felt very quiet. Very still.
My hand trembled as I lifted it. Every instinct in me screameddon’t. Every lesson I’d learned told me this was how people got hurt.
But Ash didn’t flinch. Didn’t brace. Didn’t prepare to defend himself.
He just waited.
