I kiss the corner of her mouth, tasting her tears and everything holy. “You were incredible. So brave. So fucking beautiful when you let go.”
She hides her face in my chest, but I feel her smile. “That was better than the science promised.”
I tip her chin up so she has to look at me. Her eyes are glassy and absolutely unguarded for once.
“That’s because you forgot the most important variable,” I tell her, voice rough with everything I haven’t said yet. “We care about each other. You can’t control for that in a solo trial.”
Her breath catches. A single tear slips free; I kiss it away before it reaches her jaw.
“I love you,” I say against her skin, simple and steady. “Every brilliant, curious, spreadsheet-making inch of you. I’m so proud of you it hurts.”
She makes this tiny, broken sound and buries her face again, arms wrapping around my neck.
“I love you too,” she mumbles into my shoulder, voice muffled and shaky. “I didn’t know it could feel like that. Safe and… huge at the same time.”
Relief hits so hard I almost sway. Not because she said it—because she meant it. Because I felt her mean it.
I hold her tighter. “Get used to it. I plan on running this experiment every night we’re both home. Maybe the Fiora should go in my nightstand.”
She laughs, watery and complete, then yawns so big her whole body shakes.
“Sleep, baby.” I thread my fingers through her hair. “I’ve got you.”
Within minutes, her breathing evens out, slow and deep, her body heavy and trusting against mine. I stay awake longer, just feeling her pulse sync with mine, smelling coconut and sex and home.
My favorite data point.
My favorite miracle.
My favorite everything.
I press one last kiss to her forehead and whisper into the dark, “Welcome to the control group: forever.”
Chapter Seventeen
Minerva
“Are you sure it’s okay for me to be back here?” I ask.
Violet bobs her head. “You’re a Venom employee. Of course it is.”
“Oh, but I mean… Tristan’s out on the ice right now. Shouldn’t I be out there keeping an eye on him?”
God, listen to me. Acting like my presence has any effect on him. Except… he did say he plays better when he knows I’m nearby. I pretend that thought doesn’t warm my chest.
Violet nudges me with her shoulder before pulling herself up onto the counter so that her short legs dangle inches above the floor. “It’s not like you can protect him from injury with the power of your mind.” She does jazz hands to make it clear how silly that idea is. I laugh along, even though it does feel that way sometimes. She’s right, I suppose, but I’ve got a routine now, and routine can blur with superstition all too easily.
“What your brain can do,” she adds, “is help diagnose injuries that I can’t see. Don’t get me wrong, I’m good at diagnosing concussions, but—”
“Can you tell what part of the brain is injured?” I interrupt. Shit. People don’t like it when you talk over them, but I genuinely want to know.
Violet falls silent for a moment. “Hm.” She rubs her hand over her mouth in thought. At least she doesn’t appear to be mad at me. “Well, kind of? Most of what I do here is basically triage, and then rehab, of course. If I checked one of the players over and they had a serious head injury, they’d need to go to a hospital anyway. I’ve worked on that end, but it’s a matter ofequipment. Brain injuries are really complex, and the type of specialized machinery I’d need to do the more serious scans is really expensive, and we wouldn’t get much use out of it.”
I nod. “That’s what I’ve seen in the medical journals, too. And the technology advances so quickly that buying something like an MRI scanner wouldn’t be a worthwhile investment. You need something portable, light, affordable, and effective.”
“Ooh!” Violet claps her hands in front of her. “Is this where you ask me to join your MLM?”
“Um, no.” I reach for my case. “But I do want to get your opinion.”
