He felt it.
“Let go for me,” he said, voice low and thick and barely more than a growl.
And she did.
She shattered again—violently, exquisitely—body arching, breath breaking, hips rising to meet every last relentless inch of him until she cried out, clutching him like she’d never stop.
He followed her over the edge with a rough curse and a final, deep thrust that left him trembling above her, spilling into her with a sound that was part prayer, part surrender.
They collapsed together, chests heaving, skin slick and burning, lips brushing between heartbeats.
He didn’t say her name this time.
He kissed it into her mouth.
Neither of themmoved for a long time.
The room held its hush, not from distance, but from weight. The kind that follows something intimate, something real.
Gideon exhaled against her temple, grounding her beneath the warmth of his chest. When he lifted his head, his voice slid across her skin like another touch.
“Arden…”
It wasn’t a question.
It was a vow.
They stayed tangled in the aftermath—breathless, spent, completely undone. The world outside had faded. The city’s hum, the stretch of traffic, the slow creep of night. None of it touched them here.
He didn’t retreat. He held her. Anchored her.
Her fingers traced his spine, lazy and soft. His palm remained at her waist, unmoving.
“You’re incredible,” he whispered, brushing a kiss to her temple.
“I almost think you mean that.”
His mouth curved against her jaw. “I don’t say things I don’t mean.”
The way he said it caught something inside her. She believed him.
His hand slid down her back, gentle now. Like he wasn’t done committing every inch of her to memory.
She kissed the center of his chest, right where his heart thundered beneath her lips. He flinched, not in pain, but from something quieter. More fragile.
They stayed wrappedin each other, in the kind of stillness that wasn’t silence. Her leg hooked around his hip. His hand at her waist.
Then her phone buzzed.
A soft vibration against the nightstand.
She hesitated.
“Leave it,” he murmured, eyes closed.
She almost did.
Almost.
