Riven groans, deep and guttural, and his lips trail from my mouth to my neck. He sucks hard, claiming the skin just below my jawline, and I shudder. My legs tremble, and he catches me effortlessly, hoisting me up until I’m wrapped around his waist.

He presses me back against the porch post, grinding into me just once enough to let me feel exactly how hard he is for me.

Then he stops.

Breathless. Groaning. Furious with himself.

“I’m not about to fuck you for the first time like this,” he says, forehead pressed to mine. "Not like this. Not while the world’s burning behind us."

He kisses me one last time, slower this time. More reverent.

Then he sets me down gently, brushing his hands along my sides as he exhales. When we finally break apart, he’s panting.

“I’ve needed to do that for so long,” he murmurs. Then he kisses me again, groaning against my mouth.

I feel like I could cry, but I don’t. I just clutch his coat and let the world melt around us. I’m about to lean up for another kiss, but then I hear the fire truck sirens. They’re still in the distance, but getting closer.

I pull back, breathless. “Riven…”

He doesn’t speak. Just scoops me up and throws me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing at all to him.

The fire roars behind us, devouring the house that holds so many bad memories for us.

He carries me over to the garage so I don’t have to walk through the accumulating snow. Riven punches in the code and the door rolls open. It’s then that I realize that we’re going to take one of the many Kozlov vehicles.

He chooses the black SUV and sets me down gently in the passenger seat, buckles me in himself.

Before he closes the door, he leans in and brings my hand up to his mouth. He kisses my knuckles softly. “No one touches you again,” he says. “Ever.”

He jogs around the vehicle and climbs in behind the wheel. The keys are already in the ignition, and before I know it, the engine rumbles to life.

I get one last glance of the house engulfed in flames as we barrel down the driveway, on our way to our new life.

LAKYNN