Neither of them moved for a long time.

The infirmary light buzzed overhead like it was about to burn out. Doctor had already left. Vincent’s thumb hovered right at the edge of her stitches — close enough that she could feel the heat of it, but he wouldn’t touch. Like he was scared if he pulled his hand away she’d start bleeding again right there on the table. Dried blood on her forearms had gone stiff and itchy, cracking every time she breathed. Her wrapped ankle throbbed in time with her pulse. The bandage on her palm pulled tight whenever she flexed her fingers even a little.

None of it mattered.

What mattered was the way he looked at her. Eyes dark, jaw locked, like a man who’d already run the worst calculation a hundred times and still couldn’t believe the answer came back alive.

"Come with me," he said. Low. Not a command. Just the stripped-down version of his voice when the armor was gone and he didn’t bother reaching for it anymore.

He didn’t scoop her up this time. He held his hand out, palm up. She stared at it for a beat, heart kicking hard against her ribs. Then she took it. His grip was warm and steady. He kept her weight off the sprained ankle without making a show of it — one hand at the small of her back, letting her limp through the quiet corridors at her own slow, painful pace. No staff. No Blades. The whole mansion felt like it was holding its breath right along with them. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

His private quarters were dark except for the lamp on the nightstand. Still burning low. He’d left it on for her. She felt that small thing twist low in her stomach but didn’t say shit about it.

He sat her on the edge of the bed. Disappeared into the bathroom without a word. Came back with a warm cloth and started cleaning the dried blood from her arms and collarbone himself. Methodical. Careful around every bandage and bruise. His jaw stayed tight the whole time, a muscle jumping like he was chewing on something he couldn’t swallow.

"How did you know?" she asked, voice rough. "You were at the mansion when I left."

His hands didn’t stop moving. "Lucian flagged the convoy deviation twenty minutes out. Wrong streets. Pattern matched a known Falcone funnel point." He looked up, eyes raw. "I had six minutes."

Six minutes. He’d burned them tearing across the city at speed instead of sending someone closer. Her throat tightened. She swallowed hard against the sudden thickness there.

He set the cloth down. Hands loose on his knees now. He stared at the middle distance over her shoulder and said, very quiet, "I saw the SUV burning. Thought I was too late."

No performance. Just the bare fact, scraped raw.

Her chest squeezed so tight it hurt. She reached up and covered his hand with her bandaged one — the first time she’d touched him first when nothing was exploding around them. His eyes dropped to their hands. Something in his face cracked open. Not soft. Just... relieved. Like a wire that had been pulled too tight for too long finally let go.

"You weren’t," she whispered.

He turned his hand under hers. Pressed his thumb to the inside of her wrist, counting her pulse like he still needed proof. She let him. Let the steady thump-thump-thump fill the silence between them. Then she yanked him down to her.

The kiss wasn’t the desperate crash she’d braced for. It was slow. Careful. Like he was trying to do this one thing right after everything else had gone to hell. She felt the difference sink into her bones — a heavy, aching pull that had nothing to do with the bruises or the adrenaline. Her heart slammed harder against her ribs. She slid her palm flat over his chest and felt his beating even faster than hers, wild under all that control.

Clothes came off slow, one piece at a time. His fingers checked every injury before they moved — tracing the wrap on her ankle, skipping the dark bruising across her ribs from the seatbelt, staying careful over the bandaged wrist. She watched him being so fucking precise with her broken pieces and her stomach flipped hard, a confusing mix of heat and something sharper twisting low in her gut.

He laid her back against the black silk sheets and settled between her thighs, keeping his weight braced on his forearms so nothing crushed her. His eyes moved over her body — the stitches at her hairline, the bruises blooming across her hips, the fresh bandage on her palm. His face tightened again.

She reached up fast and pressed two fingers to his jaw before he could bury it against her neck. "Still here," she said, voice catching.

He let out a shaky breath against her skin. Pressed his mouth to the hammering pulse in her throat. Then he kissed lower. Lips dragging warm and slow across her collarbone, over the swell of her breast. His tongue circled her nipple and heat shot straight down between her legs, sharp and sudden. She was already slick when his hand slid down. Two thick fingers pushed inside her, deep and curling, thumb working steady circles over her clit until her hips rolled up on their own and her fingers twisted hard in the sheets.

"Vincent—"

"I know." He didn’t speed up. Kept her right there on the edge, eyes locked on her face like he needed to watch every second. When she came it wasn’t violent. It rolled through her in long, deep waves that left her gasping and oversensitive, still pulsing around his fingers when he finally pulled them free.

He pushed inside her in one slow, relentless stroke. The stretch made her gasp loud — he filled her completely, bottoming out with a low groan right against her temple. He held there. Just held. Forehead pressed to hers. Breathing hard.

"Mine," he said. Quieter than she’d ever heard it. Not a claim. Something closer to the truth underneath.

Then he moved. Deep and controlled. Every roll of his hips dragging right against that spot inside her that made her vision blur at the edges. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him tighter. Nails raked down his back. He groaned low and drove deeper. The headboard started knocking the wall in a slow, steady rhythm. Sweat slicked between their bodies. Her breath came ragged and broken against his neck.

"Look at me."

She already was.

He lost a little of that careful control then. Thrust harder. She met every one, hips rising, chasing the burn. The pleasure coiled tighter and tighter in her belly. She dug her heels into the backs of his thighs and yanked him in as deep as he could go.

She came around him with a broken cry, clenching hard, thighs shaking. He buried himself deep and followed right after, hips jerking as he spilled inside her in long, hot pulses. His whole body shuddered once, twice, shoulders dropping as the tension finally bled out of him.

They stayed locked together. His weight pressed her into the mattress and it felt like an answer to something she didn’t have words for yet. Good. Safe. Terrifying all at once.

His hand stroked up her side, slow and lazy. His thumb traced the edge of the bandage at her hairline — not pressing, just resting there. Present.

Eventually he lifted his head. The raw desperation had faded from his eyes. Something quieter sat there now. Still raw at the edges, but steady.

"Stay," he said. Simple. Like he’d stripped everything else away and left only what he really meant.

She looked at him for a long moment. Heart still slamming. The question about the ghost Sebastian had mentioned burned right behind her teeth, but she couldn’t push it out. Not yet. Instead she reached past him and turned off the lamp with a click.

He understood. Pulled her against his chest. Arm heavy around her. Certain in a way that made her stomach twist again — want and fear and something she couldn’t name all tangled up.

She closed her eyes.

The choice had already been made. Not tonight. Not in this room. It had been made at 1:07 in the morning in the library when she sat with the truth and didn’t run. This was just the part that came after. The part where choosing stopped feeling like falling and started feeling like standing still while the world kept spinning.

Outside, the war kept moving. The alliance. The ghost. All of it still out there waiting.

She let it wait.

For now.