Fauna turned to him with that same bubbly curiosity, utterly unbothered by the warm flush in her cheeks.
"So, um...should I take off my clothes?" She asked innocently, glancing down at herself. "Or maybe it's easier if I just go all the way and get completely naked?"
The way she said it—so casual, so genuinely unaware of how her words sounded—made Mika wince.
A tight groan slipped through his throat before he could stop it.
Fauna was offering to be naked in front of him.
That alone said everything—how she still saw him as some sweet, harmless boy she'd once raised, not as a man who'd grown, not as the one who now towered over her, looked at her with eyes that saw her completely, wanted her completely.
And that…
That was what Mika wanted to change the most.
Still, not now.
As tempting as it was to say yes, to give in, to see her bare and vulnerable before him—it wasn't the right moment.
So, with a calm tone masking the storm in his chest, he gently waved a hand.
