“Dario?”
“Mm?”
“I’m really glad you came. Like, embarrassingly glad. Gold-star-sticker-on-my-emotional-calendar glad.”
“I’m glad you let me in.”
She tilts her head up. Kisses my jaw. Settles back down. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Stevie.”
I don’t sleep for a long time. Not because the couch is uncomfortable, though it is. Not because my mind is racing, though it is. Because I want to remember this.
Her weight against me. Her breath on my chest. The smell of her shampoo and the small sounds she makes when she’s dreaming.
I’ve built an empire on control. On planning. On knowing what comes next.
I didn’t plan this.
And somehow, that makes it better.
Chapter Thirty-Four
STEVIE
Morning limps in, pale and apologetic, like it knows it’s trespassing.
I wake up tangled in too many limbs, one of which is definitely not mine, and for a wild, beautiful second, I think I’ve hallucinated him.
Nope. Dario. Right here. Still solid, still breathing, still wrecking the oxygen curve on my shitty couch.
I stare at him for a while, just to make sure he doesn’t flicker out of existence. Watch the way the light softens his face, how his lashes are so obscenely long it’s honestly offensive. I want to touch them.
Maybe count them. Maybe bite him just to see if he’ll squeak.
He wakes up. Blinks at me, all rumpled, and way too sexy.
“You’re still here,” I whisper.
He gives me a look that’s equal parts mafia boss and golden retriever. “Told you I’d stay.”
“People say a lot of shit,” I say, stretching until my back cracks. “Doesn’t mean they stick around.”
He watches me like he’s memorizing my face. “I mean it with you.”
What do you even do with a man like this?
“We making pancakes, or are you trying to seduce me with toast? Because my defenses are low and my blood sugar is even lower.”
He shakes his head. “I have plans.”
I arch a brow. “That’s ominous.”
“Put something on you can walk in,” he says, and kisses my forehead. “I need two hours.”
I squint at him. “Two hours for what? You plotting my murder? Because I’m pretty sure that ship’s sailed.”
He smiles, infuriatingly smug. “Let me spoil you. No more questions.”
