Colby's gaze traveled over her, slow and deliberate, and his expression went soft and fierce all at once.Like he was seeing something precious.Something worth protecting.
"Beautiful," he said simply.No hesitation.No qualification.
Her eyes burned."You need to see all of it.The mess.The damage.Everything."
"Yeah," he said."I do.And it's still beautiful."
He touched her like that, too.Like she was beautiful, like she was worth taking time with.His hands moved over her with deliberate care, learning the landscape of her body in slow, reverent passes.He asked silent questions with every touch, pausing when she stiffened, resuming when she relaxed, reading her responses like a language he'd been studying for years.
When old fear pricked at the edges of her consciousness, when Gavin's voice tried to intrude, Colby anchored her with quiet words murmured against her skin.With the steady weight of his palm at her hip.With the simple, unwavering way he looked at her, like she was the only thing in the world worth seeing.
"Still with me?"he murmured at one point, his forehead resting against hers, both of them breathing hard.
"Yes," she whispered."Don't stop."
He didn't.
Every move he made said the same thing: I'm here.I'm not him.I'm not leaving.
By the time they moved together fully, the panic had burned away completely, replaced by something hot and bright and terrifying in an entirely different way.She clung to him, fingers pressed into his shoulders hard enough to leave marks, breath catching on his name each time he moved.
When the release finally crested, it felt less like falling and more like breaking through a surface she hadn't known she was trapped beneath.Like she'd been underwater for so long, she'd forgotten what air tasted like, and now her lungs were filling with it for the first time in years.
He held her through it, his own release following moments later with a low groan against her neck.His body shuddered, then settled, still pressed close to hers.
For a long moment, the only sounds in the room were their breathing and the faint ticking of the house settling around them.
She lay there, his weight comforting rather than confining, his chest rising and falling against hers in a rhythm that was slowly returning to normal.Her mind tried to spin up into its usual anxious patterns and failed, too wrung out, too satisfied, too at peace to manufacture new fears.
He shifted enough to keep from crushing her but didn't pull away entirely.His arm stayed curved around her waist.Their legs stayed tangled, skin against skin, warmth pooling between them.
"You okay?"he asked quietly.
She turned her head to look at him.His hair was a disaster, dark strands sticking up in every direction.His eyes were softer than she'd ever seen them, the usual intensity muted to something gentler, more vulnerable.The lines at the corners had smoothed out, the tension he carried in his jaw finally released.
"I should be freaking out," she said."By all logic, I should be having a complete meltdown right now.But I'm not."
"That's not a complaint, right?"A hint of his usual humor crept back into his voice.
"No."Her throat tightened with emotion she couldn't quite name."I just...I feel like you see me.Actually, see me."
His brow furrowed slightly."I do."
"Not my damage," she whispered."Not the broken parts he spent years picking at.Not the version of me that failed and fell apart and made terrible choices."She pressed her palm against his chest, feeling his heartbeat strong and steady under her fingers."You look at me, and I don't feel like a broken thing you're trying to fix.I feel like...like a person.Like someone you chose.Not someone you got stuck with because you happened to be on duty when my life caught fire."
His fingers tightened gently at her hip."Sabrina."
"You see me," she said again, because it was the only way she could explain it."Not what he tried to turn me into.Not what the fire left behind.Just...me."
He cupped her face with his free hand, his thumb brushing the damp corner of her eye where a tear had escaped without her permission.
"You're the strongest person I've ever met," he said."And I've met a lot of strong people.Firefighters.Soldiers.People who've walked through worse than you can imagine and come out the other side.But none of them have what you have."
She huffed out a shaky breath."That can't be true."
"Argue with me later," he said."Right now I've got the floor."
Despite everything, despite the tears still threatening and the rawness of the moment, a small laugh slipped out of her."Bossy."
