Later,when the stars have shifted and the silence settles soft around us, we lie tangled in the thin sheets, his hand tracing slow circles on my hip.
“You still scared?” he asks, voice low.
I don’t answer right away.
Because yes.
Yes, I am.
But I’m also here.
So I press my forehead against his and whisper what I’ve known since the second I walked through that gate.
“You’re not the man I left behind.”
He pulls in a sharp breath.
“You’re the one who came back.”
His arms tighten around me.
And in the space between heartbeats, I feel it?—
The promise that maybe, just maybe, we’re not lost anymore.
CHAPTER 46
JAV
She’s asleep against my chest now—her breath soft against my skin, her arm tucked over my ribs like it belongs there.
And gods help me, it does.
I’ve held weapons with less reverence than I hold this moment.
There’s no war drum in my blood. No rage rattling my bones.
Just her. Just this.
I trace a line down her spine with the back of my fingers, slow and featherlight, like I’m afraid to wake her.
Like I’m afraid she might disappear again if I stop reminding myself she’s real.
She stirs just a little, but doesn’t open her eyes.
My body still hums from her touch, from the way she looked at me like I wasn’t a ghost from her past but something solid—someone she chose.
I’ve fought a thousand battles. Killed men twice my size and taken down syndicates with nothing but a knife and a grudge.
But nothing’s ever undone me like the way she said my name tonight.
I used to think power meant control. Meant domination. Strategy.
But lying here, wrapped up in the warmth of the only woman who ever made me question the life I built—I feel something entirely different.
I feel gentle.
And that scares the hell out of me.
