Page 281 of Black Reign

“Still bossy.”

“Sleepy women are easier to manage.”

I lift my head.

“That sounded arrogant.”

“It was.”

I should argue.

Instead, my head falls back against his shoulder.

His heartbeat is beneath my ear.

Steady.

Real.

Ghost has a heartbeat.

There are still moments when that realization feels impossible.

He carries me down the hallway while London sleeps beyond the windows.

I curl one hand into the front of his shirt.

“Tu es impossible,” I murmur.

His mouth brushes my hair.

“Et pourtant, tu m’as appelé.”

(And yet you called me.)

I close my eyes.

“That is going to be your answer to everything now?”

“For the foreseeable future.”

He takes me into a bedroom lit only by the city beyond the windows.

His room.

I know immediately.

Dark wood.

Books stacked beside the bed.

A watch resting on the nightstand.

Nothing staged.

Nothing prepared for another person.

Xavier lowers me carefully onto the mattress.