I cupped her face with my good hand. Thumb brushing her cheekbone. "This is dangerous."
"I don't care."
"You should."
She kissed me again—softer this time but somehow more devastating. When she pulled back, her eyes locked on mine. No fear. No hesitation.
Just truth.
"I came back," she whispered against my mouth, "because I wanted to."
Seven words.
They destroyed me.
Rebuilt me.
Changed everything.
I kissed her like drowning, like she was oxygen, like I'd never let her go again.
And this time?
I wouldn't.
My hands found the hem of her shirt. Tugged.
She didn't pull away. Didn't hesitate. Just lifted her arms. Permission I didn't deserve but took, anyway.
The fabric tore—broken fingers catching, good hand too rough, too desperate. I didn't care. Needed her skin against mine. Needed proof she was real, here, mine.
The shirt hit the floor.
Belle stood before me in the dim light filtering through broken windows—chest heaving, eyes dark, beautiful in ways that made me forget how to breathe.
I grabbed her. Lifted.
She wrapped her legs around my waist instantly, perfectly, like she'd been made to fit there.
The wall was three steps away. I could take her there. Hard and fast and claiming. Press her against plaster and make her scream my name until the neighbors heard, until the whole goddamn city knew who she belonged to.
Every instinct screamed for it.
But something deeper pulled harder.
I turned. Carried her toward the stairs.
"Gideon?" Her voice shook. Not fear. Anticipation.
"Not against the wall." My jaw clenched.
Not when she came back on her own. Not when she chose me. Not when this meant something I didn't have words for.
I wanted her in our bed. The one she'd slept in beside me. The one that still smelled like her shampoo and her fear and her trust.
I wanted slow. Wanted to memorize every sound she made, every place that made her gasp, every curve and hollow and secret her body held. Wanted to take my time. Prove to her—to myself—that this wasn't just hunger. Wasn't just possession or control or the contract binding us together.
This was choice.
