Page 99 of Silas

“You’re amazing. I’m just calling it like I see it.” He smooths my hair back, away from my face, tucking it behind my ear. “Annika is with Chance. They both come from backgrounds of serious addiction issues. Those two really went on quite a journey together, figuring out their shit. Annika…she’s tough as nails, kind of a hard-ass, but she’s a cool chick.”

“They sound wonderful.”

“They are.”

I feel sleep tugging at my eyelids. “I’m tired.”

Silas tucks me against his chest, wrapping his arms around me like warm bands of iron, sheltering me from the world beyond this bed.

I float for a while, not quite asleep, not quite awake. I feel Silas’s breathing slow, but I know he’s not asleep yet, either.

“Silas?” I murmur, my voice muzzy and faint.

“Mmm?”

“Do you really love me?”

“Yeah, honey. I really do.”

I nuzzle closer. “I’ll go wherever you go.”

He just hums in response, half asleep.

I fall asleep, then, and I do so feeling complete in a way I didn’t know it was possible to feel.

make love, make war

Silas

Iwake up feeling disoriented. For a moment, I forget where I am, and everything that’s happened. For a moment, I’m back in my room beneath Club Sin, alone and lonely.

Despair rifles through me as I think my memories of meeting Naomi and everything since were just vivid dreams.

And then I wake up a bit more, and I feel the warm silk of her soft skin pressed up behind me, the squish of her tits against my back, her hips tucked against my ass, and her hand slung low over my belly. Her breath huffs against my neck.

It’s real.

Pure, unadulterated joy and relief erase the shadows. She’s real. It wasn’t a dream.

My phone is charging on the bedside table; I check the time: 11:43 pm. I got several hours of good, solid sleep.

Time to pay my old boss Malik a little visit.

I try to slip away from Naomi so I can dress and get out without waking her, but the moment I inch away, she tightens her grip and murmurs sleepily.

“Don’t go.” Her voice is delicate and tender and faint.

“I have to.”

“Not yet.”

I groan, and sink back against her. “A few more minutes,” I whisper, acquiescing with a relief I feel down to my toes: I didn’t want to get up anyway.

Being spooned from behind like this? It’s the purest heaven I’ve ever known—the sweetest comfort.

Her lips move in a kiss to my spine between my shoulder blades. I huff a sigh at the gentle kiss.

I think that’s it, that she was just giving me a little affectionate peck before dozing back off.