Page 204 of The Sweetest Return

“Proud of you,” I said.

Her hand covered mine where it rested low on her stomach.

“I know.”

I kissed her again, lower this time, letting my mouth follow the line where diamonds met skin.

She went quiet.

That quiet told me enough.

The rest of the evening softened around us. Sunset turned the room amber. The balcony doors stayed open. The ocean kept moving below. I took my time with her because the day had asked so much, because her body still held the thrill of what she had pulled off, because I wanted every kiss, every touch, every slow sound she made to feel like celebration instead of escape.

When the sun disappeared, she was loose and quiet against me, her cheek on my chest, one hand still touching the necklace like she could not stop checking that it was real.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

By the time we were in the air out of Van Nuys, Imani had already opened her laptop.

I let her.

The morning had moved slow. Breakfast on the balcony. Ocean below us. Imani in one of my shirts because packing for two nights had not stopped her from stealing my clothes. The Saint Aurelia necklace tucked safely in her carry-on after she checked the box twice and gave me a look like I was not supposed to notice.

I noticed anyway.

Now she sat across from me in the quiet cabin, soft cream set, bare ankles, sunglasses pushed into her hair, and a face that looked rested, satisfied, and already halfway back at work.

She sent emails, approved language, answered Cleo, praised Nina, corrected Operations without using the words I knew she wanted to use, and somehow made all of it look beautiful enough to be annoying.

I watched her for longer than I meant to.

There was something about seeing Imani work that got under me. The confidence, yes. The brain. The way she could soften her voice without surrendering a single inch of authority. But it was more than that. She belonged to herself in those moments, and every time she let me sit close without needing me to take over, it felt like trust.

She finally closed her laptop somewhere over the middle of the country.

Then she turned her head and found me watching her.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“You are lying.”

“I like watching you work.”

Her eyes narrowed. “That is a suspicious sentence.”

“It’s true.”

“You like watching me do a lot of things.”

“Also true.”

Her mouth curved.

I kissed that curve before it got too smart.

The plane, the work, the sky beyond the windows all slipped into the background after that. We did not need to make it complicated. Desire had never been the hard part with us. Tenderness had. Staying had. Letting the quiet after mean something had.