Page 149 of Cinder
The room is dark, the only light coming from the streetlamp bleeding faintly through the curtains.
“You’re still awake,” she murmurs.
“So are you.”
A small huff of a laugh leaves her, and she shifts, rolling onto her back, then turns her head toward me.
“Is this the part where you tell me everything’s fine?”
“No,” I say honestly. “This is the part where I tell you I don’t know yet.”
She studies me in the dim light. I can feel it more than I can see it.
“Okay,” she says softly.
I reach for her again without thinking, my hand finding her waist and pulling her closer until she fits against me the way she always does. She comes easily, because she knows she belongs there as much as I do.
“Hey,” she says, hand sliding up my chest, fingers brushing over my collarbone before settling flat over my heart. “We’re okay.”
My hand tightens slightly at her hip, and I let out a slow breath.
“You’re very calm about this.”
“I’m choosing to be,” she replies. “There’s a difference.”
That pulls a soft laugh out of me. “Right.”
Her thumb shifts against me in slow, absent circles.
“You don’t have to carry this on your own, Evan,” she adds after a second. “Whatever this turns into.”
I swallow.
“I’m used to it.”
“I know.” Her voice softens. “That doesn’t mean you have to stay used to it.”
Those words press right up against the thing I’ve been holding back all day. All week. The month. Longer than that.
“Penny…”
Her name sits heavy in my mouth, and she stills slightly under my arms.
“Yeah?” she whispers.
I almost say it. It’s right fucking there, close enough that I can feel it. But she’s holding me together with both hands, and I don’t want to turn the words into something she has to catch.
So instead, my palm slides up her side, fingers brushing along her ribs before settling at her back, pulling her in tighter.
“You’re here,” I say instead.
Her breath catches, just slightly. “I am.”
I close my eyes and swallow. “And you’ll stay,” I add quietly.
There’s a pause, and then she shifts closer, her leg sliding between mine, her arm wrapping around me to anchor herself there.
“I’m not going anywhere, Prince,” she whispers. “Promise.”
