We hung there in time, suspended and oblivious to anything beyond our hearts and our wishes. But despite what we wanted, the clock began to tick once more. She was called away, and I was left there to consider my luck as the night went on.

Fortunately for all of us, without incident.

Natasha was too hammered and busy with her friends to bother with Lila, and Brock stuck close enough to her that it bordered on lewd. And I mean that honestly—there was a point when they were grinding on the dance floor that I couldn’t be certain he wasn’t actually fucking her.

But with the lion’s share of her duties done, I did mine—I kept her back to the peep show and her eyes on me.

The clock mercifully struck two, and the house lights glared everyone toward the exit. As the stumbling, chattering crowd moved in that direction, Natasha climbed into the DJ booth, stole his mic, and instructed everyone to meet them at an afterhours club a few blocks away. When she dropped the microphone, the feedback nearly deafened us all, but she was unfazed, strutting her way to the exit with surprising grace for someone so tanked.

As she and Brock passed, she caught sight of Lila and shifted, beelining in our direction, her face darkening. She was looking for a fight and had Lila in her crosshairs. I moved to put myself in her path, prepared to throw her over my shoulder if I had to, but fortunately, I didn’t. To his credit, Brock kept ahold of her, whispering something in her ear that made her laugh. That laugh was at Lila’s expense—I knew strictly through observation. With a spiteful glance in our direction, they walked away.

When Lila exhaled, it was a thousand years of relief she let go. She brightened by increment, giving me a fleeting kiss before bounding off to wrap up her last duties. And I leaned back on the bar and watched her go, my foot hooked on the barstool rung and my heart on fire.

All I’d wished for, all I’d wanted, she’d delivered with the deepest affection. The admission had released me, the truth of her feelings sunshine on the fog of my doubt.

She wanted more. She wanted me. And this wouldn’t end. At least not because we didn’t try.

And I hoped beyond hope that we could find a way to make that work.

Find a way, I vowed as she strode toward me.

The smile on her face shouldn’t have been as fresh as it was for two in the morning. “You ready?” she asked.