He must have felt it, too, because his expression softened. He let go of my hand so he could reach over and cup my face, his thumb brushing across my cheekbone.
“Sidney,” he said, his voice quiet but intense. “I need you to know something. Everything DAPI did — bringing me here, setting up the surveillance — none of that matters. Because what I feel for you is real.”
My breath caught. “Ben — ”
“I know the timing is terrible. I know we’re in the middle of a crisis, and you must be furious about the way Rosenthal manipulated us. But I need you to hear it again.” His hazel eyes seemed to darken as he stared down at me. “I love you. I’ve loved you since almost the moment I met you. And whatever happens with the phoenix, whatever happens with DAPI, that’s not going to change.”
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. All I could feel was the warmth of his hand on my face, the way my abilities resonated with his electromagnetic field, and the truth of his words settling into my bones.
“I love you, too,” I whispered.
A moment of silence, and then he bent down and kissed me. Nothing gentle or tentative about it, but desperate and claiming and real. I kissed him back with everything I had, pouring the past few weeks of denial and fear and longing into the connection between us.
His hand slid into my tangled hair. My fingers curled into his shirt and pulled him down toward me. And between us, our bioelectric fields began to resonate in harmony.
I felt it the moment the resonance became visible — a spark of blue-white light jumping between our skin where we touched, followed by another. Then it turned into a cascade of tiny electrical discharges that made the air around us crackle with energy.
Ben pulled back just enough to look at me, his eyes wide. “Is that…?”
“Our electromagnetic fields synchronizing,” I said, the words coming out in a breathless whisper. “I’ve never seen it happen before.”
Another spark jumped between us, and my abilities surged in response. They didn’t seem as overwhelming as they usually were, but instead were focused, almost contained, as though Ben’s presence was tuning my power to exactly the right frequency.
“This is what Rosenthal wanted to study,” Ben said. His voice was rough, although I wasn’t sure whether that was from suppressed passion or anger. “The amplification effect. The way we enhance each other.”
“Screw Rosenthal.” I pulled him back down toward me and kissed him harder, my tongue finding his. “This is ours,” I whispered fiercely. “Not hers. Not DAPI’s. Ours.”
He made a sound of agreement and deepened the kiss, one hand sliding down to my waist. More sparks danced across our skin, blue-white energy that painted shadows on the concrete walls. I could feel our bioelectric fields merging, creating something stronger and more stable than either of us could generate alone.
Ben’s hand slipped under the hem of my shirt, his touch sending cascades of electricity across my skin. I gasped against his mouth, and he froze.
“Is this okay?” he asked. “We don’t have to — ”
“I want to,” I said. “I need to. After everything DAPI did, all the ways they violated my privacy and my choices, I need this to be mine. I need to choose something for myself.”
Understanding dawned in his eyes, followed by a rush of heat that warmed his hazel eyes to almost gold. “Sidney — ”
“Please,” I whispered. “Help me reclaim this. Help me feel like I have control over something.”
He kissed me again, more slowly this time, but no less intense. His hand moved higher under my shirt, fingertips tracing patterns across my ribs that made electricity dance in their wake. I arched into his touch, and more sparks jumped between us.
We should have been worried about the phoenix and the impossible task ahead of us. But right then, in that moment, all I cared about was Ben’s hands on my skin and the way our electromagnetic fields sang together and the proof that, despite everything DAPI had done, this connection was ours.
His lips moved to my neck, and I tilted my head back, giving him access. One hand caught in his hair while the other traced the line of his spine through his shirt. He shuddered against me, and I felt his electromagnetic field pulse in response to my touch.
“We’re putting on quite a show for the security cameras,” he murmured against my throat.
I hadn’t realized there were cameras, but then, I didn’t know much about this facility except that it had been built decades ago and abandoned for a long time.
The thought should have killed the moment, made me self-conscious. Instead, it made something fierce and defiant rise within me.
“I don’t care about the cameras,” I told him. “Screw them. Screw everyone.”
Ben lifted his head to look at me, and the expression on his face was somewhere between awe and desire. “You’re amazing.”
I kissed him again and put every ounce of defiance and determination into our embrace. His hands moved to the button of my jeans, and I reached for his belt, and —
The door burst open.
