The air between us was thick with an unspoken question.
What now?
Sierra was the first to shift, turning on her side and tracing the ink covering my shoulder with her fingers. It was a smallmovement, but emotionally, it felt like the floodgates had opened.
She was initiating intimacy. She wasn’t immediately trying to put some distance between us, after everything that had happened.
I watched her like she was a sunrise — awed, reverent, but braced for the moment it disappeared.
“It’s not that I don’t want this. Or you.” Sierra spoke first, her words halting. “I’m just scared. Of myself, of letting someone get close and being wrong about them again.”
I waited, barely breathing, not daring to interrupt her. I knew she had more to say.
“Every time I trust someone, they use it. Twist it. Leave me carrying the fallout.”
The words hung in the air between us, heavy and filled with emotion.
“I know about the embezzlement. They’re not as sneaky as they think they are,” I said finally, my voice low.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “But still clever enough that I haven’t been able to get any real evidence”.
I hummed and started playing with her hair. “That why they kicked you out?”
“Yup. I didn’t want to be part of it, so I had to go. And I’ve been trying to expose them ever since, but obviously, I’m not Miss Marple.”
“Well, you’re not alone anymore.”
She lifted her head to peer up at me. “I appreciate that, but realistically, what can you actually do? You don’t have any connections to them. No way in to gather information.”
I pursed my lips. Sierra was sorely underestimating my motivation to protect what’s mine. “You think I wouldn’t cross every fucking line if it meant keeping you safe?”
Her chin was propped on my chest, her dark blue eyes thoughtful but unguarded as she gazed at me. She wasn’t pulling away, wasn’t deflecting with sarcasm, or armoring up with silence, and the elation exploding in my chest chased away any drowsiness.
That wall of hers was ready to be knocked the fuck down.
Sierra exhaled, a long and trembling breath. Then, quietly — like she had to force the words out — she said, “I believe you.”
My breath caught in my chest. My heart skipped a beat, then pounded so hard against my ribs that I was surprised she couldn’t feel it.
“I just didn’t know how to say it. Didn’t want to admit that you got to me. That you were right.” Her voice was rough, and the vulnerability was written all over her face.
I didn’t take my eyes off her, not for a second, wanting to be present in this moment and not miss a single thing. I didn’t dare move a muscle, afraid that the second I touched her, she might shatter.
But my Goddess didn’t shatter.
She turned on her stomach, and I pulled her on top of me effortlessly.
“I’m scared,” she said. “But I want you. And I trust you. Even when I don’t want to.”
I exhaled; a low, fractured sound that was somewhere between relief and something darker.
“Good. Because you’re not getting away from me now,” I growled.
The radiant smile lighting up her face told me she didn’t want to.
Not this time.
***
