“I’m proud of you.” He takes my hand, kissing my knuckles. “You were amazing out there.”
“Me?” I laugh. “Talk about you! You were brutal. Vicious. Seeing you unleash like that. It was hot.”
He lifts an eyebrow, pushing up to loom over me. “Oh really?”
I giggle as he lowers his lips to my neck. I sigh and I run my fingers through his hair.
“I wonder if you can show me how hot you found it.” Tex’s deep voice fills my ear as his hand slides down my body.
My pulse jumps. His fingers find my clit and pinch slightly. My fingers dig into his shoulders, and he kisses me again as his fingers rub me with perfect pressure.
“I find you very hot,” I gasp as another jolt of pleasure moves through me. “I think you can feel that for yourself.”
Tex smiles as his fingers move faster and faster. Everything from tonight pushes me over and my orgasm slams into me.
32 WAR
Noah stays the night after Tex. He brings tea he doesn’t know how to brew and a book he doesn’t think I’d want to read, but we end up talking until two in the morning. About stars. Algorithms. Stupid hypothetical Guild tech no one has ever actually built. Somewhere between him correcting himself mid-ramble and me laughing for real, his hand is holding mine. By the time I fall asleep, his arm is around my waist, and my head is on his chest. I wake up like that too. We don’t talk about it.
The night after, Luca shows up like he’s hosting a sleepover in a five-star hotel. He’s wearing silk pajama pants with little dragons on them, black and gold, and carries a bag of snacks under one arm like it’s a mission kit. Under the other a rolled-up poster.
“Movie night,” he declares the second he walks in. “You need popcorn, sugar, and at least one unnecessarily hot guy in your bed. Lucky for you, I multitask.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re the worst.”
“I’m the best worst.”
“What’s the poster for?”
He kicks off his slippers — yes, actual slippers — and unrolls the poster.
“Feast your eyes!” His voice is dramatic. “The Riven Altar is the hottest band. Been around for a while, I’m sure you’ve heard them before.”
I shrug. “You’ll have to show me.”
“Do you live under a rock or something?” Luca gives me a look. “Anyways, you need some decoration on your walls. Plus, since I’m going to be staying here, I thought I might as well have something to make it feel a little more homey.”
I roll my eyes as he tapes it up on the wall. Four veiled members stare back. Luca flops onto my bed like he owns it. I almost laugh. It’s a familiar kind of chaos, Luca in motion. Loud and bright and impossible to hold still.
And maybe that’s the point.
We watch some ridiculous spy rom-com he insists is “underrated genius,” and for a while, I let it happen. He makes dumb commentary during all the dramatic music cues. Steals my candy. Drapes an arm behind me but never pulls me closer.
It’s easy. Halfway through the movie, I pause it.
He looks over. “Bathroom break? Emotional breakthrough? You finally realized you’re in love with me?”
I sit back, folding my legs under me. “Do you flirt like that with everyone?”
He raises an eyebrow, grin still in place but softer now. “Only with you.”
I study him for a second. “Why?”
Luca’s face freezes. Then, to my surprise, he shrugs. “Because it’s fun. Because I like you. Because you’re hot and terrifying and you never laugh at my jokes, but you almost do, and that keeps me chasing the high.”
“Luca—”
“But,” he says, sitting up straighter, “I’m not stupid.”
