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“Your personal testimony is inadmissible.”

I move my hips enough to remind her I am still inside.

Charm’s argument turns into a gasp.

“That felt like supporting evidence,” I tell her.

Her laugh shakes around me. “You’re impossible.”

“You crossed four hundred miles for impossible.”

“I crossed four hundred miles for your personality.”

“That was stupid.”

“So was driving to Kimball Falls without calling me.”

“I was breaking a rule.”

“So was I.”

“That still isn’t a defense.”

“It is when we both got what we wanted.”

The humor softens the intensity without erasing it.

I lower my mouth to hers and kiss her slowly. No demand remains inside it. I only want the taste of her while her fingers move along my neck and the city glows beyond my blinds.

When I pull away, her eyes search my face.

“What?” I ask.

“I have imagined being here so many times that I’m afraid to blink.”

“Then don’t.”

“My eyes will dry out.”

“I’ll buy drops.”

“Romance remains alive.”

“I mailed you poetry and commissioned art. My responsibilities have been fulfilled.”

Her smile shifts into something quieter. “This feels different.”

“From the kitchen?”

“From before.”

I understand what she means.

Before, sex became another place where we tried to prove something. I needed to prove she was wanted. Charm needed my desire to silence whatever she hated inside herself. We loved each other, but the need around that love became so tangled that neither of us always understood what belonged to whom.

Tonight, I wanted to make her feel everything.

I didn’t need the pleasure to heal her.