Page 106 of Freestyle
So when Gray lifted my bag like it weighed nothing and Nix threw an arm around my shoulder with that infuriating, perfect grin, I didn’t argue. I just nodded.
And now, here I am.
I’m on the edge of Phoenix’s bed, legs curled beneath me, heart beating like it hasn’t figured out how to slow down since we left the hospital. The night by the fountain presses down on me dark and heavy, and this room feels like the only place left in the world where I can breathe without breaking.
Then I hear the door click open.
They walk in together.
Gray’s eyes find mine first, sharp, unreadable, like he’s trying not to want too visibly but it’s there, anyway. In the flex of his jaw. In the way his hands curl into fists at his sides like he’s barely holding back.
Phoenix closes the door behind them, softer than Gray but no less intense. His gaze rakes over me, then lingers on my thigh. I try to cover myself with the comforter as the air tightens.
Neither of them moves closer, but I feel them, and I ask, because I have to, voice barely above a breath, “Why do you keep looking at me like that?”
Phoenix is the first to speak. “Like what?”
“Like I’m something you’re afraid to touch,” I whisper as my stomach coils tighter.
Gray takes a step toward me. Just one, but it’s enough to pull the world taut.
“Because we love you,” he says, steady and low.
The admission knocks the breath from my chest, leaving me momentarily speechless. “You—what?” I stutter, my heart racing.
He keeps going. “And it doesn’t feel fair to want you like this when you’re still healing, when you’ve been through so much. But the way I feel about you? It’s not just obsession. It’s not adrenaline. It’s something...deeper.”
Phoenix moves to my other side, crouching so we’re at eye level. “We’ve been circling this for months,” he says. “And the second we both realized we couldn’t lose you, we stopped running. From each other. From you.”
They’re close now.
Close enough to touch.
I reach for their hands, one to each, and hold them both like lifelines.
“I’m not afraid of your love,” I whisper. “I’m afraid I don’t know what to do with it.”
Gray leans in, eyes burning. “Then let us show you. Let us give it to you, not all at once—just piece by piece. Carefully.Honestly.”
Phoenix presses his forehead to mine. “We won’t rush, but we’re not holding back either. Not tonight.”
The room shivers around us.
Every breath, every heartbeat synced in a rhythm that feels charged.
When they finally touch me, Gray’s fingers on my jaw, Phoenix’s hand at the small of my back, it’s not hunger that leads. It’slove.
I exhale, slowly, and they feel it.
Because Gray leans into me, his lips barely brushing mine. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”
“Same,” Nix murmurs. “It’s fucking killing me.”
I nod, words lost to the intensity of their gaze. It feels like we’re standing on the precipice of something monumental.
Then Gray slams his lips onto mine, and I fall, just like that.
My lips part and his tongue sweeps in, devouring,claiming. He tastes like mint and sin, and I moan, melting into him. His grip tightens around me as if he thinks I might slip away.
