He said it softly, almost apologetically—“not now.”
Not because he didn’t want her.
But because he was overwhelmed by how much he did.
His voice carried that shaky uncertainty men get when they feel things building too quickly, when the moment becomes too intense too fast. He tried to ground himself, tried to ease the heat between them.
But she wasn’t easing anything.
Before the final syllable even finished leaving his lips, she reached for his chin. Not roughly, not possessively—just with that calm, deliberate touch that only confident women use. Her fingers slid beneath his jaw, lifting his face with a slow, steady motion that made resistance impossible and unnecessary.
She didn’t force him to look at her.
She guided him.
And there’s a difference—a difference men feel in their chest more than anywhere else.
His eyes met hers, and she held his gaze with a softness that didn’t soften her dominance. Her thumb brushed his jawline, quieting him without words. Women like her don’t battle a man’s hesitation; they dissolve it. And she dissolved his simply by making him meet the certainty in her eyes.
“Not now,” he had said.
But her expression answered:
Yes. Now.
She leaned closer, her forehead nearly touching his, her breath brushing his lips in warm, steady waves. Her free hand rested on his chest, sliding down slowly, deliberately, until he felt the unmistakable pressure of her intention. She wasn’t rushing him. She was grounding him—pulling him back into the moment he tried to talk himself out of.
Her thumb traced the corner of his mouth, silencing both his words and his doubt. Then she tilted his chin a little higher, her lips so close he could feel the shape of them without touching. That closeness—calm, certain, undeniably intimate—overrode his hesitation more effectively than any argument could.
He didn’t pull away.
He didn’t repeat “not now.”
He couldn’t.
Because she had shown him, with one simple touch beneath his chin, that she wasn’t asking for permission—she was asking for presence. She wanted him connected, attentive, fully in the moment with her.
And by lifting his face, she pulled him out of his fear and directly into her confidence.
She didn’t tell him what she wanted.
She made him look at her—
and let her eyes tell him for her.
