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I’m relieved when she wraps it tighter around herself. It’s a lukewarm response, but it’s far better than I expected. I thought it was going to be the end for us. That she would hate me and push me away.

“Lia could have been hurt,” I go on. “But Maksim told me she’s forgiven me. She knows the spot I was in. I couldn’t believe it when he said that.”

“Whoa.” She stops, looking up at me in shock. “That means a lot.”

“You think so?”

“Yes. It has to. It means she knows you did the best you could.”

I kiss her on the forehead.

“But you might need to take a lesson from this,” she says. “You can’t save people all the time. Sometimes, you have to let them go to really save them.”

“You want me to let you go?” I growl, smoothing my hands across her back and pulling her against me.

She gasps, bracing herself on my chest, looking up at me. “I never said that.”

“Then what?”

“In general. About… uh, saving people.” Why is she suddenly acting so shifty? “Come on. Take me home.”

We walk hand-in-hand to the car. I can’t press too hard with her. She needs time to process this. The last thing I want is to lose her.

In the car, she leans against the glass, looking out.

“By the way, I had to ask,” she murmurs. “But I knew what you meant when you said it.”

“Said what?”

“That you’d never been in love before,” she says. “Before Mateo turned… before he showed who he really was, I thought I was too. But he shattered that illusion.”

“Bastard,” I snarl, imagining wringing his neck.

“Babe,” she says quietly.

I sigh, calming down. “It’s not the same anyway,” I tell her. “You shattered my delusion. And it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

We say nothing for the rest of the car ride. Outside the apartment, she takes out her phone, smiling as she texts.

Serena: Do you want to come upstairs for a cuddle? But JUST a cuddle?

I smirk.

Nikolai: There’s nothing I want more.

As we ride the elevator up, I hug her to me.

“I’m really tired,” she murmurs. “Just so you know.”

“I can control myself,” I say.

“I might even fall asleep in your arms.”

I smile. “Fine by me.”

And it is. It’s more than fine. We enter the apartment quietly, kick off our shoes, and lie on the sheets. She lies atop it with me, wriggling into my embrace.

“If you fall asleep, I’ll put a blanket on you and sneak out,” I tell her quietly. “If we commit to this…” If. The word sounds like a joke. “We’ll need to talk to her. Not just spring it on her.”