Page 4 of Fierce Hearts

I found myself studying his face, the way his smile reached his eyes when he talked about Meredith's happiness.

Our lives are never promised.

How true those words were. Especially with the name I bore, the family I'd been born into.

Tomorrow was never promised.

So when he pulled me closer as the music slowed, I didn't resist. I didn't want to, not right now.

This moment felt too good, too real. Too pure. Something no name or past could take from me. Not this moment. I'd keep it, claim it for myself.

"You look beautiful tonight," he murmured, his breath warm against my ear. "I've thought about that night a lot. About what you said when you were patching me up."

Heat burned my cheeks as I glanced over at Mer, who was too focused on her new husband to notice us.

I'd not forgotten what I'd muttered to him in my ancestral tongue. I'd said it spur of the moment. "I was emotional. We all were."

"You told me to take better care of myself because you weren't done with me yet." His grip tightened fractionally, but it was enough to make my heart flutter. "I didn't ask back then, there was too much going on. But what did you mean, Sofia?"

The room suddenly felt too hot, and he was too close. I scanned the room, unease sweeping through me. Eyes were on us—the bride's brother and her best friend, dancing too intimately for mere family friends.

Why was he crossing this line? Why was I allowing it? Was it the alcohol?

No. It was what he'd said, reminding me how fragile life was. How I didn't need to constantly fight things that felt good.

"Gray..." I faltered as his hand on my waist moved to my lower back, holding me against him.

"Tell me you don't feel this," he murmured, his lips near my ear and making my skin burn. "Whatever this is between us."

I should have stepped back. Created distance. Reminded us both of all the reasons this couldn't happen—my past, his present, Meredith caught between us. Instead, I found myself leaning into him, drawn by something I'd been fighting since the moment Meredith had introduced us years ago.

Something both dangerous yet tempting.

"It doesn't matter what I feel," I whispered. "We live in different worlds."

"Do we?" His question hung between us as the music swelled. "Or are you just afraid to admit we don't?"

My throat tightened as his words rolled through my mind. I'd spent years convincing myself I'd escaped, that my medical degree and respectable life had erased my bloodline enough. The lives I'd helped save in the emergency room, the way I'd tried to repent for my sins. But watching Meredith these past months, seeing her accept both the man and the monster...

"I can't go back to the darkness, Gray," I finally said as I pulled back, but he didn't let go of me.

"Did you ever truly leave?" Gray's eyes held mine, making my heart begin to hammer.

Had I ever really left it?

The song ended, and I stepped out of his arms as soon as his grip loosened, breaking our connection. My skin tingled where he'd touched me, my pulse racing.

"I need another drink," I muttered, turning away from him and the heat of his gaze.

I made my way to the bar, my heart still hammering against my ribs. What was I doing? This was Grayson. Meredith's brother. Leo's right-hand man. A man who, despite his reluctance, had blood on his hands.

Just like I did. Just like my family did.

Was it really such a bad thing how I was drawn to him? I'd told myself there was so many reasons I couldn't, and yet…

The bartender handed me something stronger than champagne. I downed half of it in one swallow, the burn in my throat a welcome distraction from the heat Gray had ignited.

From across the room, I watched Meredith laugh at something Leo whispered in her ear. Her face glowed with happiness, with certainty. She'd made her choice and embraced it fully—the good, the bad, the dangerous. And now she had everything.

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