The small room beyond was nothing but stacked nets, a broken chair, and the faint glow of moonlight through cracked boards. It was dark, it was rough, and it was ours.
Adam pressed me against the wall before I could even breathe, his mouth hot and demanding on mine. Days of restraint, of fire held back, shattered in that kiss. My fingers dug into his shoulders, desperate, needing him closer, needingmore.
He broke away just enough to rasp against my lips, “Tell me to stop.”
My laugh was breathless, sharp with need. “Not a chance.”
His hands skimmed down my sides, over bruises and bandages, careful and reverent even as hunger tore through him.Every touch burned, every brush of his lips on my neck stole the ground from beneath me.
“Raine…” His voice was a growl, low and wrecked. “You don’t know what you do to me.”
“Yes,” I whispered, pulling him back down, tasting salt and smoke and him. “I do. Because you do the same to me.”
Clothes fell away, the world narrowing to skin on skin, heat on heat. Pain faded, exhaustion vanished, and for the first time in days, I wasn’t a soldier, wasn’t a survivor.
I was just his.
And he was mine.
The war could wait. The monsters could wait. Tonight, in this sliver of stolen dark, Adam Stoker and I burned until nothing else existed.
108
Adam
Moonlight slipped through the cracks in the boards, pale stripes across Raine’s bare shoulder where she lay tangled against me. Her breath was slow now, steady, her body soft where it had been all steel and fire hours ago.
I brushed my fingers through her hair, damp with sweat, and let myself breathe for the first time in days. Weeks. Maybe longer.
She shifted, her cheek pressed to my chest, her hand sliding over the scar near my ribs. The one I never talked about. The one that usually made me flinch when anyone touched it.
With her, I didn’t move.
“You’re quiet,” she murmured, her voice low and rough, the edge of exhaustion still clinging.
“I’m not used to this,” I admitted.
Her head tilted back so she could see me, those fierce eyes softened now, shadows gone. “Used to what?”
“This.” My thumb traced the line of her jaw, slow and steady. “Peace. You. Both at once.”
Her lips curved faintly, almost a smile, but it didn’t hide the weight in her gaze. “It won’t last, Adam. You know it.”
“I know.” My hand tightened at her hip, holding her closer. “That’s why I’m not wasting a second of it.”
For a while, neither of us spoke. Just her breathing against me, the soft brush of her fingers over scars, my heart finding a rhythm it hadn’t known it still had.
Finally, she whispered, so quiet I almost missed it. “You scare me.”
I went still. “Because of tonight?”
“No.” Her eyes lifted to mine, steady and raw. “Because I could lose you. And I don’t know if I’d survive that again.”
The words hit harder than any bullet I’d ever taken. I cupped her face, kissed her slow, deep, until I felt the tremble fade.
“Raine Carter,” I said against her lips, “you won’t lose me. Not to them. Not to anyone. Not while I can still fight.”
Her breath shuddered, then she curled tighter against me, as if she believed it—if only for this moment.
