“My room?” I force myself to ask.
His gaze drops to my lips, lingering there for a heated second before trailing lazily back up to my eyes. “Dangerous things happen in unsupervised quarters.”
“Yeah, I, uh… I’m okay with that.”
He groans low in the back of his throat, the sound vibrating through me where we’re still pressed together, then leans in for one last kiss before backing up.
“That’s a few hours away,” he says, voice rough around the edges as he adjusts his scrubs with a sheepish grin. “Try not to miss me too much?”
“No promises,” I breathe, still leaning against the wall for support because my legs feel like jelly.
His smile is magnificent, bright and unguarded, and he walks out the door with one last glance over his shoulder before disappearing into the hallway.
Xeni
“Are you sure you have everything?” August’s voice is cautious, but it startles me.
For days now, I’ve been stuck in my head, but today has brought a whole new level of distraction. Ever since I started packing, this trip has escalated from ‘whatif’ to a reality that's impossible to ignore.
My mind keeps playing through the possibilities.
What if I’m captured in the city?
What if I never find him?
What if I do?
I’m not delusional. There are no visions of grandeur or daydreams of a happy reunion. Bash isn’t going to open his arms and pull me back into the life we once shared. Four years of silence—mysilence—have shattered any chance of that.
I broke his heart.
Completely,deliberately, and without a single word of explanation.
He’ll never want to cross paths with me again. Hell, he’ll never want to spare me a thought, so when I break this unspoken rule and show up?
If he were anyone else, I’d expect a shouting match. Maybe a good backhand, or a glob of spit in my face.
It would be justified.
But Bash isn’t the sort to shout and swing fists. His anger was never loud or violent. It lived in the quiet spaces. The pauses that stretched too long in conversation, and the clipped edge to his words when something cut too deep. He was always too logical, too controlled to let emotions rage unchecked.
Unlike me.
“Xeni?”
Right.
My chest swells with a deep breath, and as I push it out, the worried lines on my face relax. By the time I spin to face August standing in my doorway, my smile is intact.
“You offering to help me pack, pretty boy?” I ask with a wink, and Elas’s grumbling growl makes my smile turn more genuine. He’s like a shadow, never far from his mate. Riling him up has become a favorite hobby of mine because it’s just soeasy.
“Tell you what,” I say, gesturing at my dresser, “if you want to give me a hand, you can grab me a few things from that top drawer while I finish loading my food.”
August comes bouncing inside my tiny home, always so eager to help. Elas crams himself into the room as well, taking up half the space on his own.
My entire adulthood has been spent in military barracks, so I opted for something small.
It’s just me, after all.
