Chapter 17 A Dangerous Spark

• Third-person POV
• The moment the door closed behind Maverick, something shifted in the room, and the tension between him and Averin that had been building since the moment they locked eyes in the hallway snapped into something hotter, and more volatile.
• He didn’t speak, didn’t wait for permission or invitation. He moved as if working on instinct, and before Averin could even register what was happening, his hands were cupping her face, tilting her chin upward, and his lips crashed onto hers firmly, hungrily, and recklessly.