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I look away from the screen and look at Artemis. Her eyes close briefly, and when they open again, she looks at me with a tenderness that makes me forget the people standing around us.

I look down at our joined hands, unable to keep the emotion from my face.

Artemis gives my hand a gentle squeeze.

I lift her hand to my lips and kiss her gloved knuckles.

Her cheeks color faintly, but she doesn’t look away.

“What’s that for?” she asks softly.

I brush my thumb over her fingers.

“For choosing to stay.”

Her expression changes, and for a moment, I think she might say something that will alter the shape of everything between us.

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” she whispers.

I close my eyes.

There are a thousand things I could say, a thousand ways I could try to explain what those words mean to me, but none of them seem worthy of the moment.

So I simply hold her hand tighter.

Because for now, I don’t need promises about tomorrow. I also don’t need her to tell me what we are or ask her to name something she is still learning.

I only need her here.

We’re no longer two people on opposite sides trying to hide who we are.

We’re two people who found their way to each other.

And both hearts have made their choice.

Artemis holds my hand until the crew calls us back to work, and even then, she is reluctant to let go.

So am I.

And when our fingers slip apart, I’m left with the warmth of her touch and the certainty that I don’t simply want to love Artemis. I want to love her in a way that makes the world feel softer around her. In a way that gives her room to be every version of herself, and that never asks her to be anything other than who she is.

Perfect in every fucking way.

And mine.

For as long as she will have me.

thirty-three

. . .

The Problem With Falling In Love

“And then someone comes along and falls in love with the ice in your veins.” — A

By the time the last piece of equipment is loaded, the estate has almost emptied out again.

Night has settled over the mountains, draping the grounds in darkness and leaving only the soft, golden pools of light cast by the lanterns along the winding paths.