Page 33 of Controlled Drift
Niko steamrolled straight over him.
“I tore myself apart over that,” Niko snapped.“Years of replaying every conversation, every look, wondering what I missed.Wondering what I did wrong.And all that time, it was him pulling the strings like some sick puppet master?”
He tried again."Babe, he—"
Niko rolled on and let out a sharp, humorless laugh.“I swear to God, if I ever get him in a room alone, they’re going to need dental records to identify what’s left.”
The words were violent, but the pain beneath them was raw and naked.
“I will end him,” Niko said again, quieter now, deadly sure.“For you.For Marcus.For thinking he could break you and survive it.”
Ethan stepped into his path before the rage could turn into something sharper, more dangerous.He lifted his hands, cupping Niko’s face, forcing him to stop, to look at him.
Then he kissed him.
Not careful.
Not restrained.
It was desperate and grounding all at once, years of restraint breaking open in a single, undeniable truth.
The kind of kiss that said I chose you, even when it cost everything.
And for the first time since flight school, since fear, since loss, Ethan felt like he had finally come home.
****
The kiss didn’t stop.
It deepened.
Niko felt it in his chest first—the way years of wanting collapsed into a single moment of contact.Ethan’s hands were still on his face, thumbs warm and steady, like he was afraid Niko might disappear again if he let go.
Niko kissed him back without thinking.
Not gently.Not cautiously.
Like a man who had waited years to do this.
When they finally broke apart, Niko rested his forehead against Ethan’s, breathing him in, laughing softly despite the sting in his eyes.
“We lost so much time,” he murmured.
Ethan swallowed.“I thought about you every day.”
“Yeah,” Niko said quietly.“Me too.”
They stayed like that for a moment, hands still on each other, the fire crackling behind them, the dark lake stretching endlessly beyond the glass.Everything outside this room—Gregory, Pyre, Black Tide, the war waiting for them—fell away.
“Will you make love to me?”Ethan asked.
The vulnerability in the question hit Niko harder than the kiss had.
“I need to feel how much I still mean to you,” Ethan said softly.“I need to know I stand a chance.That you don’t hate me for leaving.”
Niko didn’t answer with words.
He took Ethan’s waist in his hands and walked him backward toward the bedroom, slow and deliberate, never breaking eye contact.
