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She’sasleep on my chest, her favorite place to be with one arm slung across my stomach. Her breath warm against my skin. Her leg hooks over mine like she never plans to let go.
Like this…us… was always inevitable.
I smile in the dark as my palm moves slowly over the bare skin of her back. Tracing the soft curve of her spine.
Savoring the weight of her, the silence between us, the fire crackling low and golden nearby.
I’ve never known this kind of peace. Not once.
Not in the years before the Syndicate. Not in the years after.
And certainly not since Ironveil began swallowing every piece of me I didn’t already burn.
But she’s here. Curled against me like I’m her home. And for the first time in my goddamn life, I think about what it might mean to be someone else.
Not the man with all the secrets. Not the monster hunting bigger monsters with a target on his back. Just… hers.
Dahlia shifts, breath catching. Then her fingers curl into my side like a kitten clawing for reassurance. She doesn’t open her eyes, doesn’t speak. But shefeelsme.
The knowing in her touch undoes me.
I dip my chin and kiss the top of her head. Despite her shower earlier, she smells like sweat and ash and me.
"You're not sleeping," she murmurs.
"Neither are you."
Her lashes flutter open. Her eyes are dark and storm-lit in the low light. “Too much in my head.”
“About what?”
A pause.
“You. Me. This.”
My chest tightens. The chains rattle. “Tell me,” I say quietly. “Even if it’s fucked up.” Even if it gets you shackled and bound to me while I figure out ways to steal the heart that’s not yet mine.
She props herself up on her elbow, fingers trailing down my chest. “It’s not fucked up. That’s the problem.”
My brows lift.
“I thought you’d be a one-night mistake,” she says, a crooked smile tugging at her lips. “Or a thirty-day one. That I’d pay up, gather info, get the hell out. And maybe... okay, most definitely, rob you again.”
I smirk in the dark. “And now?”
“The world’s not ready for the things I want to do to keep you mine.”   My breath leaves me in a rush.
Fuck.
She doesn’t blink. Doesn’t flinch. Just stares at me like she’s laying her soul bare and waiting for me to do the same.
“You scare me,” I admit.
She nods. Somber and divine. “You said that before.”
“I know. Still true. Truer.”
Her lips tremble. Just slightly. “I’m terrified too, if it helps. With how much I want to make it real.”