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His lips found the bruised skin below her ear. She rested her cheek against his head and breathed out heavily. The sun had shifted, brighter now, the lines on the floor reaching the bed.

“We’re late,” she said, snuggling up against him with a smile.

“I don’t care.”

“Caitlynn’s expecting us for lunch.”

“Caitlynn can wait.”

She pulled back. Looked at his face. Sweat at his temples, his mouth reddened, his eyes dark with the aftermath of what they’d just done. She touched his bottom lip with her thumb.

“I love you,” she said at last, so softly that she almost didn’t realize it had been out loud.

His whole body went still. She found his eyes, larger than usual with surprise.

“Say that again.”

“Don’t push your luck.”

He laughed easily, his hand moving over the contours of her body. He pulled her against him and kissed her, hard, graceless, grinning against her mouth.

“I love you,” he said. “I have loved you longer than you’ve known.”

She kissed him fiercely, the ember in her belly almost turning into a flame again. Then she climbed off his lap, found a clean shirt, and threw his jeans at his head.

“Get dressed. If we’re late, Elianna gets my seat.”

They held hands as they made their way to Caitlynn’s.

The table was too small. Kahn’s dining table was built for six, and there were eight of them now, nine if you counted Elianna, who sat on Caitlynn’s lap, shredding a piece of bread with the focus of a surgeon dismantling an organ.

Sloane stood in the doorway and watched them. Kahn at the head of the table, his sleeves pushed up, carving the roast Viktor had brought from the kitchen. Caitlynn beside him, auburn hair in a knot, bouncing the baby on one knee while she argued with Olivia about the ward rotation schedule. Viktor at Caitlynn’s left, his hand resting on Olivia’s chair back. Damian, across from them, leaned back, his boots probably on the rung of someone else’s chair, stealing olives from the bowl before Kahn had served.

Chris came up behind her. His hand found the small of her back.

“You going to stand here all day?”

“I’m assessing the seating situation.”

“It’s a table, Sloane. Not a battlefield.”

“Everything’s a battlefield.” But she walked in anyway.

Damian spotted them first. He kicked the empty chair beside him. “You’re late.”

“We overslept,” Chris said immediately.

“Sure you did.” Damian’s grin was quick, knowing. Chris cuffed the back of his head on the way past.

Sloane sat. Chris took the chair beside her, close enough that his knee pressed against hers under the table. Kahn set a plate in front of her without comment.

“Lyssa?” she asked hesitantly. She’d still made it a point of avoiding her sister.

“Eating with the patrol wolves.” Caitlynn shifted Elianna from one leg to the other. “She asked to sit with Reyes tonight.”

“I suppose that’s progress,” Olivia said with a shrug.

Sloane took a piece of bread. Tore it in half. “Does… does she talk about him?”