Page 29 of Fifth
He chose a section where the wind ran soft and the ground stayed dry under the map of stars the preserve allowed. Branches laid against each other made a narrow lean-to that faced the fire. He used stones to load the base and a woven lattice of smaller sticks to close the worst of the gaps. It wouldn’t stop rain. It would stop drafts.
He would stop anythingelse.
Hannah crawled in on hands and knees and turned to make space for him. He shifted his body until his back met leafy branches and his front met the warm line of her spine. The shelter forced intimacy. He didn’tmind.
“You’re a furnace,” she murmured, not unpleased.
“You are cold.” His arm closed around her middle, his palm settling low until his forearm caged her hips. She went still, her breath catching. He didn’t press further. He simply held, keeping the wall of his body at her back, letting her decide if she would yield to it. Waiting had become his discipline, the habit of a male who could break worlds but chose restraint for her. He asked without words, and by holding, he offered his answer.
A long breath left her, and then she eased into him, her body finding its place against his as if the broad wall of his chest had been made for the narrow slope of her shoulder. The crown of her head fit beneath his jaw, and having her there settled something restless in him. He lowered his mouth close to her hair, breathing her in, certain he could’ve stayed like that until the stars themselves burnedout.
Her fingers found his forearm where it lay across her. She traced the line of tendon with the pad of her thumb, then the faint scar that crossed his wrist. “Where did you get this one?”
“Training.”
“That sounds like you weren’t supposed to be using real knives in training.”
“The knife was real. The lesson was also real. Both left a mark.”
She smiled against his skin. The next question came softer. “Do you ever want to be… gentle?”
He didn’t answer at once. She shifted as if to fill the silence. He stopped her with a breath. “Affirmative,” he said. “With you.” He turned his face into her hair and let the word live in the space it made. “Only with you.”
Her shoulders shook once. Then he caught it—laughter, soft and startled, not the sob he had braced to hear. Relief slid cold down the back of his neck. He hadn’t wanted to taste her tears tonight. He wanted the heat of her mouth, the curve of her lips answeringhis.
“Say that again,” she whispered.
“Only with you.”
She took his hand and lifted it to her lips. Akiss touched the heel of his palm, then the pad of his thumb, then the scar on his wrist. His body reacted the way it always did with her, fast and absolute. His pulse jumped against her mouth and he didn’t attempt to hideit.
“You will sleep soon,” he said, because he heard the thickness stealing into her voice and knew exhaustion hunting her steps.
“Will you?”
“No.”
“You need to.”
“I do not.”
“You’re impossible.”
“Affirmative.” He tightened his arm around her. The fire cracked outside, soft, steady. Their breath found a shared rhythm. The hard edges inside him softened into something he didn’t have a word for. He knew the feeling. It was the quiet that lived under victory when the substance of a loved one’s heartbeat rested steady against his chest.
Her hand slid beneath his forearm and found the skin of his belly. Warmth met warmth. The touch wasn’t accidental. For a moment he simply absorbed it, his breath slowing as he weighed the intent behind her reach. The shelter closed them in, every pulse point magnified in the silence, and he understood they had shifted into new ground together.
She moved cautiously, as if testing her own intent, and then turned in the narrow space to face him. The shelter was too small to allow distance. Her knee came between his thighs. Her breath struck his mouth. Her eyes searched his like she had a map and was trying to choose aroad.
“What happens to me,” she asked, voice low, “if I live through this and I decide that I want to stay with you?”
He didn’t think or reach for a plan. He reached for truth. “You stay with me.”
“And that’s it?”
“That is everything.” He let his knuckles stroke across her cheekbone. “You will not answer to any voice that is not your own. You will not belong to a man who pays. You will not belong to a crowd that makes wagers. You will belong to yourself. If you choose me, then I will belong to you.”
Her breath caught. “You don’t know me.”
