He sank his teeth into my shoulder and smothered his own grunt of completion. By the time we both crashed, our limbs tangled in a sweaty mess, darkness had fallen over the room. He rolled to his back, taking me with him, and the moon filtering through the window illuminated our entwined bodies in the shadow of night. The lack of light didn’t feel suffocating, and the walls weren’t caving in like they had while locked in that cell. I placed my head on his chest and draped a leg over his, content to just be.

To doze.

To feel safe for the first time in forever.

“Why do you love me?” he asked, pulling me from the allure of sleep.

I opened my eyes and lazily traced a finger over his tattoo, following the dark tribal design toward his belly button. His muscles quivered under my touch, and one glance at his cock gave away his renewed desire. “What kind of question is that?”

“The kind of question I want an answer to.”

I stalled my hand just below his belly button, and his sharp intake of breath thrilled me.

“I don’t know why. Maybe it started out as a crush, like you said on the island.” I lifted my head, and his fingers tunneled through my hair. “When I finally told you about Zach, you wanted to fight for me. You weren’t disgusted or running away. You wanted to kill him for me. No one has ever cared that much. That’s what I love about you. I love you for your strength, because I have none. I love you for the way you make me feel, because I feel nothing when I’m not with you.”

“You’re not weak. You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for.” He tugged me closer by the hair, his clutch a deep burn in my scalp, and brought my mouth to his.

“I love you,” I whispered against his lips, “for wanting to make me hurt in the best ways possible.”

“I’ve never said it, Alex.”

“Said what?” My heart raced so fast, I thought my chest would rip in two.

“That I love you.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“Because I wasn’t sure that’s what it was.”

“But now you know?”

“Yeah,” he said, his lips teasing mine for an instant before he pulled away enough to incinerate me with the heat in his eyes. “When you became more important to me than my own life, that’s when I knew. And it makes no fucking sense because I have so few memories of the two of us together.”

“Love doesn’t have to make sense. It just is. Something pulled us together. Maybe it was the darkness in each of us. Does it really matter?”