“Bold of you to assume I don’t have one.”
Dan stopped mid-stride, eyebrows leaping toward his hairline. “Wait. You’re serious?”
Penny clutched at invisible pearls, gasping like Arden had committed a felony. “Arden Rivers, you’re holding out! What is it? A quote? A phoenix? A skull with roses and a tragic backstory?”
Arden tilted her head, letting silence do the heavy lifting. They both stared, visibly itching to ask—and Arden let the silence hang, turning their curiosity into a kind of shield.
Gideon stepped out of the shadow beside the lamppost, posture relaxed, but the look in his eyes anything but.
The city light kissed the angles of his face, catching along the sharp edge of his jaw, the dip at his throat. Controlled. Dangerous. Handsome in a way that didn’t try to be.
His gaze found her—slow, precise, targeted.
“Now that’s provocative,” he said, his voice dark and smooth, like a secret poured neat over ice. “Where exactly is this mystery ink?”
His words draped over her skin like a touch she wasn’t ready for. Heat threaded down her spine, pooling low. For one breathless moment, his fingers were still there, tracing the answer from memory.
But she didn’t blink.
Didn’t flinch.
Instead, she met his eyes, gaze steady and unrepentant.
“That’s classified.”
Gideon’s mouth curved—half smirk, half mystery. Deeper.
“Something that matters?” he asked, voice low and even, just enough to stir the butterflies in her belly. “You don’t exactly seem like the cutesy ink type.”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Her tone was light, but the edge in it was deliberate.
His eyes lingered for a second, dropping to her mouth like a thought he hadn’t decided against yet.
“I would.”
Two words, low and razor-smooth, landed between them with the weight of inevitability.
The world tilted.
Their friends moved around them, laughing and talking. But the sound was muffled by the hum rising in her ears.
His stare tethered her.
Unflinching. Unapologetic.
The space between them shrank—no touch, no move—only tension, thick enough to taste.
Arden’s breath caught in her throat. Her heart thundered. He hadn’t touched her, but her skin ached like he had.
Penny groaned. Loud. Theatrical. The moment cracked like glass.
“Okay,fine! Arden has secrets, probably etched in some very inconvenient location. But what about you, Blackwell?”
Dan grinned. “Yeah, come on. Family crest? Latin motto? Something moody and painfully elite?”
Gideon didn’t move. Didn’t break eye contact with Arden. But his smile turned sly. “I think I’ll leave the ink to the rest of you.”
Penny gasped like it was a personal betrayal. “Unforgivable. Do you know how iconic you’d be with some dramatic ink across that chest?”
