My fingers find where his rest against my stomach, brushing over his knuckles. “That sounds lonely.”
He huffs out a humorless laugh. “It was. But I didn’t really know anything else.” Another pause. “It didn’t get much better as I got older. Relationships—if you could even call them that—were always surface level. People didn’t stick around, and I didn’t ask them to.” He squeezes me tighter. “No one ever cared enough to.”
I swallow against the tightness in my throat. “That’s not true.”
He exhales, the warmth of his breath against my neck. “Maybe not now.” He presses a slow, lingering kiss to my shoulder, and when he speaks again, his voice is even quieter. “But you see why this is different for me.”
I do.
I turn my head to look at him, and the vulnerability in his eyes makes my heart pinch. “You deserve to know what normal is like,” I say.
His gaze holds mine, something passing between us. “Maybe,” he says softly, and there’s a flicker of something—hope, maybe—that makes my chest twist.
We eat together at the small table, the sunlight streaming in through the windows, and for a while, it feels like all our problems don’t exist.
“I know you’re trying to fix things,” I say finally, breaking the silence.
He looks at me, his brow furrowing. “What do you mean?”
“With the Assembly.”
Withus.
He releases a long breath, running a hand through his hair.
“You don’t have to tell me,” I say gently. “Not yet.” I pause, then add, “But I am proud of you for trying—despite everything. Even without knowing the details, I know that much.”
His jaw tightens, and for a moment, I think he’s going to argue, to brush it off like he always does. But then, after a long beat, he nods—small, almost imperceptible, but there.
And somehow, that’s enough.
I let myself believe that maybe—just maybe—this could be something real. Something that lasts.
18
IT’S UNFORTUNATE THAT I CAN’T KEEP HER HERE FOREVER
EZRA
I can’t helpbut feel a strange sense of relief. The air between us is lighter than it’s been in days, the tension dissipating as we finish our breakfast. Kruz’s cooking has a way of grounding me, pulling me back to something simple and familiar in a world that’s anything but.
When the silence stretches, I finally glance at her. She’s watching me, her gaze quiet, measuring. Maybe she doesn’t know it yet, but I can feel the change in the air. The way she looks at me, the way she softens in my presence—it’s different than before. And it’s unsettling because the last thing I want is for her to get too close. Yet.
I have to make sure everything works out the way I plan for it to first.
Her safety is my top priority.
Regardless of how I feel, there are things happening that are out of my control. If those things happen to go south, it will be even more dangerous for her to be close to me than it was before once we are back on the mainland.
It’s unfortunate that I can’t keep her here forever.
But I can’t deny what’s happening between us.
There’s nothing sweeter than the sound of her surrender.
Nothing more addicting than the way she melts when I show her exactly who she belongs to.
If I thought I was fucked before, it’s nothing compared to how I feel about her now that I’ve had this time with her, just the two of us. Even if part of that time was spent sleeping with one eye open in fear that she’d ball up her wool socks and shove them down my throat while I snored.
