Page 70 of Heat Clickbait
But in the corner, looking almost pathetic in the midst of all the chaos, was something new, a small clear space with meditation cushions I'd bought during one of my optimistic "I can totally be a functional adult" phases.
"You actually tried," she said, and her voice sounded touched in a way that made my chest warm.
"Forty-seven times. Never made it past thirty seconds without getting distracted by literally everything." I bounced on my toes, watching her explore my space with curious eyes. Shepicked up one of my energy drink sculptures, turning it in the light like it was actual art instead of caffeinated garbage. "But maybe..."
"Maybe what?"
"Maybe I wasn't supposed to find stillness alone. Maybe I needed an anchor."
She turned to look at me, and something in her expression made my chest tight in the best possible way. Like she was seeing something in me that I'd never seen in myself.
"Want to try again? With your anchor?"
We sat on the cushions, facing each other in the little clear space I'd carved out of my chaos. This time when she took my hands, I didn't fight the energy coursing through me. Instead of trying to suppress it or channel it into something destructive, I let it flow between us. Her stillness balanced my chaos, my intensity feeding her strength, creating something new and electric in the space between us.
"There," she said softly. "Feel that?"
I did. Beneath the constant buzz of my ADHD, beneath the desperate need to claim her, beneath all the noise and chaos and mess, there was something else. Peace. Not the absence of chaos, but chaos with purpose, with direction, with someone who understood it.
"I want to bite you," I admitted, the words coming out calmer than expected. "Not because I'm desperate or manic or trying to prove something. Because I choose to. Because you're mine and I want everyone to know it."
"I know."
"No, I mean now. Here. While I can actually think straight for once. While it's my choice, not just instinct screaming at me to mark what's mine."
She tilted her head, exposing the elegant line of her neck with its constellation of existing bites. There was space that looked like it was waiting specifically for me.
"Then choose," she said simply.
I moved forward slowly, for once in my life not rushing headfirst into action. My hands settled on her waist, feeling the warmth of her skin through Milo's shirt. My lips found her neck, kissing softly at first, tasting salt and sweetness and something uniquely her beneath the layers of pack scent.
She gasped when my teeth grazed her gland, her hands tightening in my hair, and the sound went straight through me like lightning.
"Last chance to back out," I murmured against her skin, even though the thought of stopping now felt physically painful.
"Tanner Luis Bailey," she said, and hearing my full name made me shiver, made my hindbrain sit up and pay attention, "if you don't bite me right now, I'm going back to the roof and jumping myself."
I laughed, actually laughed, because of course she'd threaten chaos to get me to act. "We really are perfect for each other."
"Disasters in harmony," she agreed.
When I bit down, when my teeth finally sank into her and broke the skin, the bond exploded between us like fireworks going off in my chest. All that chaotic energy I'd been struggling to contain suddenly had somewhere to go, into her, through her, creating a circuit that lit us both up from the inside.
I felt everything she was feeling. Her amusement at my racing thoughts, her affection for my inability to be still, her genuine love for every messy, chaotic part of me that I'd been convinced was too much. And through our new connection, she felt my wonder, my relief, my bone-deep gratitude that someone finally understood.
"Holy shit," I gasped, pulling back to see my mark on her neck. The bite was already healing, the bond settling into something permanent and perfect. "Is that what it always feels like?"
"No," she said, touching the fresh bite with wonder, her fingers tracing the edges where my teeth had been. "Yours feels like... electricity. Like chaos channeled into light."
"That's the nicest way anyone's ever described my disaster energy."
She laughed, pulling me down for another kiss that tasted like forever and possibilities. "Want to know a secret?"
"Always."
"Your chaos? It makes me feel alive. When everything gets too heavy, too serious, too controlled... you remind me that it's okay to just be messy sometimes."
"We should probably tell the others," I said, already knowing I was about to ignore that rational thought completely.
