Page 278 of Lodestar

“It was always supposed to be on your finger.” That had me biting my lip, but before I could say anything in my nervous agitation, he whispered, “I told you, you don’t need to say yes or no. It can sit there for a year or twenty and it can just mean something tous.”

I swallowed. “You’re too good to me.”

He chuckled. “Before you, Star, I was my father’s weapon. You gave me purpose even without knowing it. Then, you wereyou,I fell hard, and your cause became my cause. Your fight became my fight. We’re in this together, Star. Until the end.”

And with those words, I accepted a worryingly beautiful truth—that Conor was the only person alive who had the capacity to raze me to dust, who could destroy me and rebuild me at the same time.

The only person I’dallowto do that.

The ring felt like a heavy weight on my hand for that reason alone. Not because I hated jewelry—which I did—but because it represented more than a pretty bauble. Its solid presence was comforting. Exactly like him.

It was timeless.

Forever.

Just like us.

I bit my lip at the thought then whispered, “Did you like that song?”

I didn’t realize I’d taken a while to answer until, his tone sleepy, he mumbled, “You knew I would.”

Smiling to myself, I calculated it’d take two years for me to broaden his horizons away fromnoxxious.

He’d once told me that only women wanted to change the men in their lives, but he was wrong in this instance.

There was nothing about him that I wanted to change… Nothing apart from his shitty taste in music.

The thought had me settling deeper into him as I turned back around so I could tuck my arm over Katina’s waist and, sandwiched between the people I loved the most, I allowed myself to rest.

6

CONOR

YOURS - ELLA HENDERSON

I wokeup and found that I’d literally died and gone to heaven.

Da was wrong.

There weren’t fluffy white clouds and dudes dancing around in togas with their dicks flapping in the breeze as they partied in the sky.

Nor was it Maximus Decimus Meridius’s version either—these weren’t the Elysian Fields.

“I know I’m out of practice, but if you’re too busy mumbling, ‘Da’s so wrong,’ maybe I should stop?” Lodestar huffed as she peered at me from halfway down my chest.

I squinted at her, surprised to see that it was full light outside the windows so that meant I got an even better view of herthere.

Just,there.

“Dawaswrong,” I rasped. “This is heaven.”

Her huff of irritation morphed into a softly uttered, “Oh.”

She liked hearing that.

Not as much as I enjoyed having her lips on my skin, though.

Star peeped at me. “I-I didn’t want to touch you, your…”She sighed. “Youwithout your permission but I?—”

---