“I want to, Nadia. You give me trust. I give you care.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist. The water ran over both of us, steady and constant. Cristian rested his chin on my head and kept one hand at the small of my back, the other smoothing down my arm again and again, like he was calming himself as much as me.
“You are safe,” he said once more, softer than before. “With me. Always.”
“I know,” I said. And I meant it.
We stayed like that until the steam filled the room, until my heartbeat settled, until his shoulders relaxed under my hands. When he finally reached for a towel, he wrapped it around me first, tucking the edges with such care that my throat tightened.
Then he pulled me into his arms again. No hunger. No urgency.
Just care.
My pulse had finally stopped tripping over itself, but I didn’t trust it not to start again.
Cristian lay beside me. We were tangled under the sheets, both of us too dazed to move.
I tried to focus on the sound of the sudden rain outside instead of the fact that I’d just done… that. Again. Withhim.My undead, ex-aristocrat, kind-of-roommate. I tried to remember the words of my therapist. To allow myself good things. But I’m not exactly sure she meant spending the whole day in bed with a vampire was what she’d meant.
Cristian’s hand was drawing slow, steady circles on my hip. The quiet felt peaceful.
“So,” Cristian said finally, voice low and calm, “would you like to tell me why you brought up Ezra earlier?”
My body went rigid. “What?”
“You mentioned his name earlier,” he said. “And then evaded.”
“I don’t evade.”
He turned his head toward me, one brow lifting. “You do.”
He wasn’t wrong. I sighed, sinking deeper into the pillows. “It’s nothing.”
“Nothingrarely makes you avoid eye contact.”
I groaned. “You’re very observant for someone who lived life without indoor lighting.”
His lips curved slightly. “Flattery will not work this time.”
I sat up, clutching the blanket. “Okay, but if I tell you, you have to promise you won’t get… weird.”
He studied me for a long moment, unreadable. Then: “I can make no such promise.”
“Cristian.”
“I willtry.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“It’s the best I can offer.”
I exhaled, bracing myself. “Fine. Ezra said something weird. Two things, actually.”
His eyes sharpened. “Go on.”
I pulled at a loose thread in my blanket. “He said maybe the easiest way to deal with the Sovereign Court was to just… kill them all. Including your brother.”
Cristian stilled completely. His expression didn’t change, but the air around him did. The temperature seemed to drop a degree.
