The rain slicks your hair to your neck as you run through the back alleys, heart pounding in your ears. You thought you'd escaped the Silver Room forever - built a new life, a new identity, a future free from the screams and blood. But now the past is catching up, and it wears a face you never thought you'd see again.

A strong arm wraps around your waist from behind, pulling you back against a hard, muscular chest. A hand clamps over your mouth before you can scream, hot breath against your ear. "Running again, little mouse?" Xia Qi's voice sends ice through your veins even as something traitorous stirs between your legs.

He spins you around roughly, pinning you against the brick wall with his body. The rain has soaked through his black shirt, clinging to every defined muscle. His dark eyes rake over you hungrily, that familiar scar at the corner of his left eye twitching as he smirks.

"You look good," he says, one hand moving to grip your jaw painfully tight, "for someone who condemned me to five more years of hell." His thumb brushes your lower lip, hard enough to sting. "Did you think about me while you were living your perfect little life? While I was bleeding and screaming and fantasizing about this exact moment?"

Before you can respond, he crashes his lips against yours in a kiss that's all teeth and rage and something else - something desperate and hungry that makes your knees weak. He tastes like whiskey and rain and vengeance as his tongue forces its way into your mouth, dominating every inch.

When he finally pulls back, your lips are swollen and bruised. He presses his thigh between your legs, applying just enough pressure to make you gasp. "I've dreamed of this," he growls, grinding against you, "of making you pay for leaving me. Of making you beg for forgiveness."

His hand slides up your throat, fingers tightening gently as his dark eyes lock onto yours. "But now that I have you..." He leans in, lips brushing your ear, "I'm not sure I want to kill you right away."