I brace myself for his reaction, hoping with all my might that he doesn’t regret it.
He doesn’t collapse on me. He doesn’t even take time to recover.
He fits his spent cock back inside his pants, then grabs for his sweatshirt and turns it inside out. Withthe soft side of the fabric, he wipes my body clean, thoroughly and efficiently, the way he does everything.
The storm still rumbles outside, further away now. He doesn’t seem to notice.
Without a word, he threads my underwear and pants back onto my legs and leaves me to pull them up. He hands me my bra and sweater. His focus is on the task at hand, getting us both dressed again.
Is he rushing to put this encounter in the past, or will he pretend it never even happened?
“I tried to stay out of it,” he says finally. “I thought distance would protect you.”
After I tug my sweater on, he pulls my hair loose of the collar and smooths the strands over my shoulder. His gaze is directed at what he’s doing, but his eyes seem unfocused.
“I don’t want to lose you,” I say quietly.
CHAPTER 40
VIPER
I built my life around managing risk. Around knowing exactly how much pressure something can take before it fails.
“You’re going to regret this,” I tell her.
She sits back on the bench, sliding over toward the corner, making space for me. “Maybe. But being here with you was worth it.”
I’m about to leave, but instead, I sink down onto the other end of the bench. My first instinct is to reframe what just happened and file it away somewhere.
It doesn’t fit anywhere.
“I don’t do halfway,” I say. “And I’m not wired for shared ground.”
Things go quiet with only the hum of the generator’s white noise in the space. It’s the kind of silence that usually lets me reset, but it doesn’t work this time.
“I stayed away to protect everyone,” I say. “You. Them. The team.”
“And now?” she asks.
“Seems like that was all for nothing.”
She flinches, and I feel like an asshole. She hasn’t done anything wrong, and I’m working through what to say to her when she reaches up and brushes her thumb along my jaw.
The gentle touch nearly undoes me.
“I won’t chase you,” she says. “And I won’t pretend this fixes everything. But I’m not going to act like it didn’t matter, either.”
I close my eyes and drop my head back against the wall, hating how fucking messy it all is. There’s no plan, no rules, and no exit strategy for when things go sideways.
“You didn’t break anything,” she adds, her voice even more tender. “Even if it feels like it.”
I let out a breath. “It does.”
She shifts closer and leans her head against my shoulder. She rests her hand on my arm. It’s warm and soft.
We sit like that for a minute, nothing moving except our lungs drawing in air. I try to let my mind go blank. When she pulls back, she pauses, and I could stop her, but I don’t.
“I’ll give you space,” she says.
