Page 152 of The Best Shot

For a while, neither of us tried to talk.

Then he pulled me up, flipped me onto my back, and pushed inside me in one long stroke.

I wrapped myself around him and we moved together slow and aching, his hips rolling deep, his mouth everywhere he could reach. There was nothing frantic left in it. Just too much feeling and nowhere to put it.

When I came around him, he buried his face in my neck and followed right after.

Afterward, he stayed inside me, holding me close. His thumb brushed the faint marks on my wrist where the cord had been.

“Yeah,” he said quietly into the dark. “You’re coming back to me.”

Neither of us said love.

Neither of us said goodbye.

Neither of us said what would happen if one wasn’t strong enough to survive the other.

We just held on.

44

SPICE CABINET

A MONTH LATER

GENERAL CHAT

Ava: spa day saturday

Ava: same place. noon

Tabby: YES

Annie: in

Ava: Nico?

Nico: Oh, I’m invited this time?

Tabby: Babe.

Nico: thought I wasn’t pedicure zen

Ava: you want in or not?

Nico: Yes.

Ava: Carter?

Carter: what treatments are we getting

Ava: pedicures. manicures. facials if anybody wants one

Carter: russian manicure?

Ava: probably

Carter: in