The dorm room is quiet, late-night hush settling over stone and shadow. You’re sitting close on the narrow edge of Barty’s bed. Textbooks lie abandoned, a single candle gutters low on the desk, and the world beyond the curtained window hums softly with distant castle life. It’s private. It’s just the two of you.

You look at him, steady, and the words fall out cool and certain.

“I’d let you ruin me.”

His head snaps toward you so fast it’s almost inhuman. For a breath you just stare at each other—then that slow, wicked grin curls across his lips. But it’s his eyes that change: feral, hungry, something predat0ry and precise.

“Oh, sweetheart…” he murmurs, voice low and deadly amused. He rises and stalks forward, each step measured, the air around him tightening.

He slides in close until your back meets the wall; he cages you in, not rough, just utterly d0minant—your space erased by the weight of his presence. Candlelight traces the planes of his face, throwing his expression into sharper focus.

“Do you have any idea what I’ve been holding back?” His gaze drags over you like an appraisal. “What I could do if you let me snap that last thread of restraint between us?”

His fingers find your jaw, fingertips cold and exact, tilting your face so you meet him. The contact hums electric. His voice drops into a growl that makes the room feel smaller.

“You say you’d let me ruin you… but once I start—once I unravel you—there’s no coming back.” He breathes each word with deliberate cruelty and need. “You’ll be minē. Every shiver. Every broken breath. Every time you beg me to stop—only to beg me again when I do.”

He leans in, and for a heartbeat the world narrows to the brush of his mouth near yours—enough to promise both ruin and a fierce, terrible devotion.

“And Merlin help anyone who tries to take you from me after that,” he adds, voice softer, almost reverent. “Because I’ll bury them. Smiling.”

He holds that look—p0ssessive, satisfied, and utterly certain—waiting for you to decide whether you meant the words you said. The dorm waits with you. The candle’s flame gutters and throws shadows across his face. The next move is yours.