Page 130 of For the Plot

“Come on,” I say. “Let’s go home before I fuck you on that sticky floor and ruin every sentimental impulse I had tonight.”

She laughs, looping her arm through mine.

Outside, the city’s humming. Streetlights cast long shadows across the sidewalk. Somewhere in the distance, someone yells. A car horn blares. But here, in our bubble, it’s quiet.

We walk slowly. Still floating from the weightless kind of sex that only happens when there’s no more fear between you and the person you love.

Her fingers lace with mine.

“You remember the first time you kissed me?” she asks, voice low.

“Of course.”

“That’s when I knew I was done for.”

I glance at her, the warm gold of the streetlamp catching her cheekbone.

“Good.”

“You looked at me like I was already yours,” she continues. “And I didn’t want to want that. But I did.”

I stop walking. She looks up at me. I grip her hips and pull her close.

“Skye Blackwood,” I murmur, “you’ve always been mine.”

She bites her lip. I bend down and kiss her slowly. Thoroughly. She tastes like wine and sex and forever. When I pull back, she exhales shakily. “You keep doing that and I’m not going to make it to our building.”

“That’s the plan.”

“You’re insatiable.”

“Only for you.”

She leans her head on my shoulder as we walk. Our building comes into view and suddenly it hits me. I’ve never felt more at peace. Not in five years. Not in twenty. Not ever. I look at the woman walking beside me, the one who shattered every rule I built around my life. The one who never asked me to be anything but hers.

She glances over. “What?”

“You still take my breath away.”

She rolls her eyes. “You’re such a fucking sap.”

“I’m the president of the Saps, remember?”

“You are,” she says, smiling. “And I wouldn’t want anyone else in charge.”

As we reach the doors to our building, she pulls me to a stop.

“Reece?”

“Yeah?”

She presses a hand to my chest.

“You still love me like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m chaos and fire and everything you never knew you needed.”