She's saying my name—over and over, like a prayer—and the sound spurs me on.
"You're mine," I growl against her throat. "Say it again."
"I'm yours." Her voice is ragged, breathless. "Only yours."
"And I'm yours." The words tear out of me, raw and true. "Everything I am. Everything I have. It's yours."
She cries out, her body clenching around me as she comes.
The sensation triggers my own release, and I bury myself deep, groaning her name as pleasure crashes through me in waves.
We collapse together, breathing hard, hearts pounding.
"That was..." She trails off, laughing weakly.
"Yeah." I roll to the side, pulling her with me, tucking her against my chest. "It was."
We lie there in the aftermath, tangled together, the sweat cooling on our skin.
Outside, I can still hear the distant sounds of the party—music and voices and the rumble of motorcycles.
But in here, there's only us.
"What happens now?" she asks quietly.
"Now?" I press a kiss to her hair. "Now we live. We build something together. You pursue your teaching certification. I run the club. And every night, we come home to each other."
"That simple?"
"Nothing about this is simple." I tilt her chin up, making her meet my eyes. "There will be problems. Challenges. Days when everything goes wrong. But we'll face them together. That's the only thing I know for certain."
She smiles—soft and content and utterly beautiful. "I like the sound of that."
"Good. Because you're stuck with me now." I pull her closer, wrapping myself around her like a shield. "For as long as you'll have me."
"How about forever?"
The word settles into my chest, warm and bright. Forever. I never thought I'd have a forever. Never thought I'd want one.
But with her, I want it all.
"Forever works," I say.
She kisses me—soft and sweet and full of promise. And for the first time in my life, I believe in the future.
Not just survival. Not just getting through the next day, the next crisis, the next war.
A real future. With love and hope and the possibility of happiness.
With her.
Later, much later, we lie awake in the darkness.
The party has finally wound down. The clubhouse is quiet. And Ripley is tracing patterns on my chest, her head resting over my heart.
"Levi?"
"Hmm?"
