Page 460

Charm let me love her body without making my love responsible for whether she could live inside it tomorrow.

“I’m not saving you,” I say.

“I know.”

“You don’t need me to.”

“I know that too.”

My thumb moves along her cheek. “I still want to be the man you come to.”

“You are.”

“Even when you can handle it alone?”

“Especially then.” She presses her mouth against my palm. “Coming to you is a choice now.”

The answer settles into every wounded place her letter began repairing.

I kiss her forehead and slowly pull free.

Charm makes a small, unhappy sound.

“I’m not leaving.”

“You moved away.”

“I need to clean you up.”

“I was enjoying the filth.”

“You’ll survive.”

I leave the bed long enough to retrieve a warm cloth from the bathroom. When I return, Charm remains exactly where I placed her, open against my sheets with my release slipping between her thighs and no shame anywhere in her expression.

The sight nearly puts me back inside her.

She notices.

“Again?”

“Don’t challenge me.”

“I was asking.”

“You were smiling.”

“No-filter Charm smiles.”

“No-filter Charm needs sleep.”

“She drove four hundred miles.”

“That excuse has expired.”

I settle between her thighs and clean her carefully. She watches my face while I work, her hand moving through my hair whenever I get close enough.

The tenderness doesn’t feel separate from everything filthy that came before it.