Page 91 of Celestial Combat

My house was exactly how I’d left it – red brick, a small porch, the chain-link fence surrounding the private driveway leading to the back. The kind of house that blended in easily, unassuming in the way I needed it to be.

I didn’t currently want the kind of luxury my family lived in. I wanted something simpler.Something real.

Zane cut the engine, shifting to look at me.

I reached for the door handle. “Thanks for the ride. See you tomorrow at the gym.”

“Pack your stuff. You’re coming with me to Brooklyn.”

“Yeah, no. I’m not actually living with you.”

Zane tilted his head slightly, considering. “You gon’ make me throw you over my shoulder and lock you in the car?”

I stared at him, waiting for the smirk. The teasing glint in his eye. Some sign that he was messing with me.

But there was nothing.

Just that cool, unreadable expression.

“You’re serious,” I said flatly.

Zane’s gaze didn’t waver. “Deadly.”

I stared into his eyes. Maybe I couldn’t win this.

But I could for sure mess with him.

By the time we stepped into Zane’s loft, night had fully settled over Brooklyn. The city beyond the towering windows stretched out in an expanse of glowing gold and cold blue, skyscrapers blinking against the ink-dark sky.

After taking off our shoes, I watched as he scooped up my bags and started toward the steel staircase leading to the second floor. I followed, trailing behind him, my eyes tracing the ridges of his back, the movement of the muscles beneath his black hoodie.

When we reached the bedroom, Zane walked across the room without a word, dropping my two bags at the foot of the bed. I took a slow step inside. There was something about the way the city lights filtered through the windows, catching on the sharp angles of his jaw when he turned back to face me.

“You want to order something for dinner?” Zane asked, straightening up.

I didn’t answer.

Because when he turned, I was already right there.

Close.

Too close.

I watched his expression shift – subtle, but there. His eyes flickered, just slightly, as if weighing the sudden change in space between us. But he didn’t back away.

“You agreed to this?” I asked, my voice low, dripping with something dangerously close to seduction. “Just like that?”

I could feel his body heat now, this quiet hum of restrained power, coiled just beneath his skin.

I lifted a hand, pressing my palm lightly against his chest.

Hard,unforgiving,ruthlessmuscle beneath my fingers. His hoodie did nothing to mask the solidness of him, the steady, slow rise and fall of his breath.

I dragged a manicured finger down the center of his chest, slow, deliberate. Testing him. Feeling his entire chest tense under my touch

“You’re not exactly a shadow, Zane. You’re kind of hard to miss.”

His jaw tightened. But he let me continue.

---