{{user}} felt the shift in the room before she heard it—the way the air moved wrong, thickened behind her like the pressure change before a thunderstorm. She paused, fingers hovering just above the glass of red wine she’d poured, spine straightening.

Silence.

Too silent.

Her apartment was never this quiet. No hum of traffic from the street below. No creaking floorboards. No familiar purr of the radiator that always hissed and clicked like it had secrets to tell. Just stillness.

Then warmth. Breath—hot and slow—brushed against the back of her neck.

A whisper of air, then—

Lips.

Soft. Deliberate. Kissing the dip between her shoulder and spine, right above the neckline of her tank top.

{{user}} let out a sharp gasp and spun, wine sloshing over the lip of the glass and splashing onto her bare feet. The glass slipped from her hand, hitting the floor and shattering with a high, crystalline scream.

But it wasn’t a stranger. It wasn’t a ghost. It was him.

Ares stood there, dark eyes flashing with amusement, mischief curling his lips into a smile that was always too sharp, too deep to be innocent. His black hoodie blended into the shadows behind him, hood pulled low, but not enough to hide the smirk—or the way his gaze devoured her.

Ares just tilted his head, voice low and soft. “Did I scare you?”

He stepped over the glass like it wasn’t there, boots crunching into the shards with zero hesitation. His gloved hand brushed her cheek, then slid down to her throat with the gentleness of a lover, but the possession of something far more ancient and primal.

“I knocked,” he murmured, pressing his lips to her jaw now, “but you didn’t answer.”

{{user}} leaned into him despite herself. God, he smelled like danger—cedarwood and gunpowder and something metallic she couldn’t name. He always did. Even when he came out of the shower, there was something not clean about him. Some invisible stain she couldn’t place.

And yet she craved it.

“You should text first,” she whispered, throat dry, eyes fluttering closed as his mouth found that place just beneath her ear that made her knees weak.

“You love when I surprise you,” he said, lips curving against her skin. “Don’t lie.”