AllFreeNovel
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For a long moment, the sound of our breathing is the only audible noise. Has the city decided to sleep, too? To give us this moment of peace and clarity?
As much clarity as one can have with the massive amount of drugs in my system. Yeehaw. “Or I could log in to my chat, and Darkling can have some more banter with EnemySquare,” I say.
“Whatever you want. However you want to say it, as long as you say it. But if you won’t stop wasting time, then I’m going to tell you how I feel first,” Devan says.
“I love how you make even the sweet things like being emotionally vulnerable into a contest.”
He loops our fingers together and holds them against his heart. “I learned a thing or two from you.”
“What I’m trying to say, and it’s not the drugs, is that I want to be with you. Whatever happens and wherever life takes us, I want to be with you on every level. Your partner, your lover, all of it.”
“My girlfriend?” he questions.
“Everything,” I say, my smile growing. “Even if we fail.”
He shakes his head. “Don’t bring up failure. Not right now. Not when we’re coming down from a win. Yes, it’s a win, Aria. We’re alive.”
“Worse for wear, but alive,” I agree. “You’re right. It’s a win.”
“We’re together.”
I squeeze his fingers. “Always. If you agree.”
“I’m a terrible bet as a girlfriend, but I’m a good partner. I’m a good woman.”
“You are an amazing woman.” He kisses the side of my head. “You are strong and passionate and a survivor. I couldn't be with anyone else. You have to know that.”
“I’m starting to.”
Tomorrow, the real world is going to crash back down on us. Tomorrow, we’re both going to have to go to the Ninth Precinct and give our statements. Naomi managed to barter, along with Jasleen and the boys, to give us tonight to heal and rest.
Tomorrow isn’t here, not yet.
The only thing real is this moment, right now, with the two of us in agreement. My heart settles into a slow rhythm that I know matches Devan’s, and when sleep finally takes me, there are no bad dreams.
Only love.
TWENTY-EIGHT
devan
“Areyou kidding me right now? I said I want to write the code myself, not have an AI program do it for me. Especially since I’m the one in charge of the code for the AI!”
Aria’s yelling at someone through her headphones, a nameless and faceless someone who is there to do her bidding.
I close the door gently behind me so as not to disturb her and cross the apartment toward the kitchen with takeout Chinese in hand.
She’s made herself comfortable on my couch, turning the coffee table into her new workspace. I have no fucking clue why she’s comfortablethereor how she hasn’t turned into a hunchback from leaning over a screen almost twenty-four hours a day, but she insists she’s fine.
She is. Very,veryfine. It’s my new favorite word since she tells me I use it too often anyway.
Her assurances don’t stop me from worrying about her.
“If you don’t quit trying to convince me about the program—” she breaks off when she sees me. “Oh! Sorry. I’ll have to plan another meeting to scream at you later, okay, Flix? Talk to you soon. Get it fixed,or else!”
I set the package down on the countertop, and seconds later, her arms have wrapped around my midsection, her cheek pressed to my back.
“You shouldn’t have gone out without me,” she murmurs. “And you definitely should have let me know where you were going.”
