Her shoulders flinch—but she doesn’t retreat. Doesn’t sag with relief.
She straightens.
And for the first time, I see something flicker behind her eyes that isn’t fear.
It’s anger.
At herself, maybe. At me. At the world for making this necessary.
The moment fractures.
Someone exhales in the crowd.
A drink clinks.
The music thumps back into focus, dragging the bar out of its stasis like a slap to a frozen screen.
The woman turns—abrupt, stiff—and disappears back into the crowd without another word.
I don’t follow.
I don’t need to.
Because now?
I’m watching.
CHAPTER 6
ROXY
He takes me to the dance floor with the kind of ownership that should terrify me, and instead it steadies something in my chest. There’s tension in his eyes, his grip. He remembers the slap. My hand still stings. Felt like hitting a brick wall. Then something else hits me:
I don’t remember saying yes.
Maybe I didn’t. Maybe I just moved and he moved with me, and now I’m here in this place I swore I’d never let myself get dragged into again—eyes burning under neon, heartbeat syncing with bass, and him.
Him.
His presence is absolute.
He doesn’t guide me with words. He doesn’t ask.
He just moves like he knows the gravity between us is already doing the work. Like orbit isn’t a choice—it’s a law. The crowd splits for him without argument, and I go with him, dazed, off-balance, but stillmoving. My legs are caught in the pull of momentum and mistake, and I’m starting to think maybe they’re the same thing.
The music swallows us whole.
Bass drops like a hammer to the chest. The floor vibrates beneath my boots. Sweat slides down my back, and every nerve in my body screams for clarity it doesn’t get.
His body is close. Not touching. Butclose.
I can feel the heat radiating off him. A field of pressure. Of promise. He’s tall enough to block half the club’s lights, wide enough to make me feel like the air only gets past him because heletsit.
We start to move.
No,hemoves—and I follow. Because I don’t trust myself not to bolt, and because there’s something weirdly safe about how absolutely confident he is. Not arrogant. Not performative.
Certain.
