His hand squeezes mine. “Cason.”
I sigh dramatically against his back as though I’m being deeply inconvenienced by affection and basic emotional honesty.
“Can the shadows stay inside me?” I ask in a whisper.
“Of course.”
Finally, I allow him to pry me off enough for us to shift onto our sides facing each other. I hate the moment my cock slips out of him, but he makes up for it by staying inside of me. Or…his shadows do. I might start having a problem keeping those two separate.
The second we settle, trying our best to avoid both the messes we made, I move right back into him anyway, curling against his chest, burying my face there this time. The shadows stay inside me, and I’m grateful for it. I wouldn’t be able to stand being empty right now.
One of my legs tangles with his while his arm slides around my waist. His heartbeat is steady beneath my ear, in sync with mine, like maybe both of us dying and coming back put us on the same wavelength.
The most important thing is that it means he’s alive. Still here.
Mine.
The thought makes my throat tighten all over again.
God, I’m pathetic. What kind of loser cries after sex?
Fuckingtwice.
“I love you,” I mumble into his chest before I can stop myself.
Oh, sure. Let’s make it worse.
There’s a moment of terrifying silence before Reese says, “I know.”
I scoff and pull back just enough to glare at him. “Arrogant much? You’re lucky you’re attractive.”
One corner of his mouth lifts. “You spent four years building something that would dismantle an entire digital empire in order to avenge my death. People don’t do that unless they’re in love.”
I swallow because…yeah, he’s not wrong.
His hand slides into my hair, fingers combing through it slowly. “You know what else people don’t do unless they’re in love?”
I narrow my eyes suspiciously. “What?”
“Kill anyone who hurts them.”
My breath catches in my throat and refuses to budge. His gaze holds mine hostage as his hold around my waist tightens until it almost hurts.
“Burn the whole fucking world down for them.”
Something in my chest caves in completely after that. My eyes sting again, and I immediately bury my face back into his chest before he can see it.
“In case that wasn’t obvious,” he whispers against the top of my head. “I love you too, Cason. And I would do all of those things for you.”
Curled up against him, I realize the frightening thing isn’t that I’d die for Reese Morgan. It’s how easily I’d kill for him too.
Maybe that’s what we are now—two ruined things wrapped up in shadows and holding each other so tightly that the rest of the world should probably be afraid.
Because our love doesn’t make us weak.
It makes us more dangerous.
The sun is bleedingout by the time we reach the Institute. Orange and gold dull slowly into blue-black across the horizon, the last light catching against Bellrose’s glass exterior and turning the entire building into something cold and reflective. A monument or a tomb.
