Chapter Twenty-One
Fear didn’t alwaysfeel like panic.Sometimes it felt like heat under the skin, a tight, relentless pressure that refused to ease, no matter how carefully Kayne breathed or how many contingencies he stacked in his head.He had lived with fear before.He’d weaponized it, controlled it, and used it to keep people alive.
This was different.
This crawled into his bones and whisperedyou could still lose her,no matter how fast he moved or how acute his instincts were.It didn’t shout.It waited.
Chloe hadn’t said much.She’d gone quiet, holding herself together with effort and habit.When he suggested leaving the gym early, she hadn’t argued, just nodded and let him guide her out.Her hand had tucked into his, needing the contact as badly as he did.
Anja and Leo stayed at the club to oversee the remaining deliveries.Back at the safe house, the door barely clicked shut before he pulled her to him.
The kiss was borderline desperate.His mouth claimed hers with the need to feel her breathing, to feel proof she was still here, warm and solid in his arms.She’d told him she wasn’t fragile and then proved it by matching him in intensity.A soft sound broke free of her throat and went straight to something primal in him.
“I need you,” he said against her mouth, the words raw and unfiltered.“Right now.”Not a want, but a necessity.
She didn’t hesitate.“Yes.”
That was all it took.
They moved together without grace or care for anything but closeness.Clothes were shed haphazardly, abandoned along the way as he guided her toward the bedroom, his hands never leaving her skin.Letting go might tempt the universe to test him again, and he wasn’t about to let that happen.Every step felt like defiance.He was choosing life over fear.
He laid her back on the bed and followed immediately, bracing himself over her, while he forced himself to slow enough to look at her beautiful face.Her eyes were dark, shining with the same mix of fear and want and need that mirrored his.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured.“I’m here.”
Her hands slid up his back, nails grazing his skin.“I know.”
That quiet, unspoken trust nearly shattered him.
He kissed her again, slower now but deeper, pouring everything he couldn’t say into the press of his mouth and the way his body curved around hers and filled her.Every touch was deliberate, almost frantic in its tenderness.He memorized her warmth, her softness, and the steady rhythm of her breath beneath him.
The world narrowed to skin and breath and the bed creaking softly beneath them.
Kayne moved with urgency born of terror and devotion tangled too tightly to separate.He needed her close, to feel her response, her hands on him, her body meeting his like a vow neither of them had spoken aloud yet.
Chloe clung to him, matching every movement and every kiss, her breath hitching as she pressed closer, closer, until there was no space left between them at all.No room for doubt.No room for loss.
When they finally crested, it wasn’t just explosive; it was utterly and completely devastating.A slow, shuddering release left him holding her, worried she might slip away if he loosened his grip even an inch.
He collapsed beside her, drawing her against his body.His heart was still pounding hard enough to hurt.Chloe tucked herself into him instinctively, her cheek against his skin, her breathing evening out to match his.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.The silence felt earned.
Kayne touched his lips to her hair and closed his eyes, silently making the same promise over and over.I will not lose you.
No matter what it cost.
#
Chloe lay tucked againstKayne’s side, her cheek resting against his chest.She listened to the steady, powerful rhythm of his heart.
It should have calmed her.And it did, a little.Enough that the shaking inside her eased, her breathing slowed, and the world stopped swaying quite so violently.She could exist in her body again instead of hovering just outside it.
But her mind wouldn’t quiet.
