Author's Note: Thanks for the feedback, everyone! Please, if you see typos or grammatical errors, point out where they are to me. I'll more than likely blast right by them while editing and it's much easier for me to fix them when I know where they are. Anyway, there's one chapter left after this. Have fun with this one!

Titration by HawkofNavarre

Chapter 14

A Picture Perfect Day

The sixth time she woke up that morning was because of a phone call. After a restless sleep, it was only fair that she be disturbed when she was finally hitting a REM stage. The sound of The Guitar's Serenade had never been so annoying before. Ema grabbed her pillow and stuffed her head into the cushion as she whined and rolled over. She hoped this was a really important case, because otherwise she was going to kill someone.

Pawing at her nightstand, Ema finally managed to pick up her cell phone and flip it open. "…Hello?" she said groggily, her throat still a bit sore from the night prior.

"Please tell me you've seen the news."

She sat up in her bed, knocking the back of her head against the headboard with a wince and running a hand through her hair. God, she really needed a shower. And probably some ibuprofen too. "Lana? Why are you calling so early?"

"It's seven. It's not that early. And you diverting to that statement already tells me that you haven't seen the news."

Wearily, Ema checked the nearby clock. Lana's statement was indeed true. Clearly the lack of sleep was not agreeing with her. She was used to working late nights, but a solid four or five hours of deep sleep generally did the trick to keep her on her game. She had gotten maybe one cumulatively throughout the night. "What's the big deal? Was there a big murder or something?" she asked her sister as she pulled her knees into her chest.

"…No, but I'd say you're probably liable to commit one once you see the news," Lana replied enigmatically.

"Urgh, okay, I'm going to see what the heck you're going on about," the detective groaned, then clicked on the speakerphone. Having just woken up, the TV seemed too far away to turn on, but she always kept her tablet nearby. Often she ended up browsing on the device into the early hours of the morning whether she was reading case files or streaming videos online. She really didn't have any other reason why she would keep it under the pillow on the other side of her bed.

"Just…try not to do anything rash," she heard Lana say.

"Why would I do something rash?" Ema asked, genuinely confused as she reached under the pillow for her device. She woke the screen and opened up the browser, typing in the address of her usual news outlet. The headliner was about the drug bust they'd pulled off just a few hours ago and the same event that had started yet another fight between her and Klavier. Just below that article, there was a photo in celebrity news that was only slightly smaller than the drug story. Her brain suddenly shut off as she saw what it was. She clicked on the picture to expand the article, not quite believing her eyes. Unfortunately, as the screen loaded the next page, the photo blew up to about four times the size of what it had been and there was absolutely not denying what it showed.

There, clear as day, was an image of her kissing Klavier Gavin.

"What the fuck is this?" she exploded, mind short-circuiting.

"I think you know, considering you were there," Lana replied dryly.

Ema threw her tablet down, grasping her head. "Now is not the time, Lana! This is not what was supposed to happen! We were fighting! I wasn't thinking, and he… He…"

"He what?"

"He got mad and stormed off!" she finished. "I'm on the front page of the news! This can't be real!"

"Well, this is certainly a lot more complicated than I'd anticipated. I thought you two had finally just stopped being idiots about this and got together," her sister continued through the phone.

"I didn't even know if he had feelings for me." Although she definitely knew now.

"I knew he had feelings for you, and I'm pretty sure I told you that," Lana responded, exasperating Ema further. "But I didn't call to argue with you. Are you okay?"

Grateful her sister had redirected the conversation, she crumpled onto her bed and hugged her pillow. "I-I don't know. Two minutes ago I didn't even know any of this was public, and now? Now there's probably paparazzi outside my building."

"Is there?"

"…I dunno."

"You should probably check."

Grudgingly, Ema rolled off her bed, still clutching the pillow in her arms, and peeked outside through her bedroom window. Sure enough, there were reporters with cameras bigger than her head swarming the place. She scurried back to her previous spot feeling miserable. "There are."

"Do you have work today?"

"At ten."

"I can drive you. I'll pick you up from the garage so nobody sees you."

"…Okay."

There was silence as Ema stewed in self-pity.

"Ema, talk to me," Lana said in a soothing voice over the phone. It was a tone she was familiar with, the one her sister always used when she was trying to say that everything was going to be alright.

Ema wanted to say something, but she didn't even know where to start. There were just way too many things buzzing through her head right now. She'd already been upset coming home this morning with the way she'd left things with Klavier, and now this? The pile of shit she was dealing with had officially turned into a public shit storm with more consequences than she could even fathom, and all because she had let her guard down for just a minute. She had weakened in the face of his vulnerability and shown him her own. In a normal world, that wouldn't be that big of a deal, but Klavier was an international rock star, and even though he had given up most of his music career, he was still a celebrity to the people. Ema never wanted anything more than to live quietly as a forensic investigator and all of that had just promptly flown out the window.

"Ema? Are you still there?"

"I care about him, Lana," she told her sister, "but I don't want this."

"What are you doing?" Lana asked her as they drove through the streets of L.A. towards the precinct.

They had successfully dodged all reporters, though Ema had still made sure to tie her hair in a bun and wear sunglasses. Instead of her usual work clothes, she was in red short-sleeve blouse with black leggings to make her less recognizable to even those who knew her. She had very unhappily left her lab coat at home as well, because even if she hadn't been wearing it in the photo, once people had identified her, they had pulled up multiple old images of her at crime scenes. If she were wearing her usual outfit, she would be found out in a minute. Lana, of course, had been the one to suggest all of this since Ema wasn't thinking very clearly, but she was thinking clearly enough now.

The detective was back on the news site, examining the photo carefully on her tablet. "I'm trying to figure out where this photo was taken. I was sure there was no paparazzi around. It was an absurd hour in the morning when we made the bust, and unless whoever took the photo lived in the neighbourhood, there's no way they would've heard about it by that time. Even the news teams didn't show up for at least another twenty minutes," she explained logically. Now that the initial shock had worn off, she didn't really want to think about what was in the photo so much as how it even existed at all.

"Now that you mention it, even the angle of the photo doesn't look like it was taken by someone who was hiding out behind cars," Lana said in agreement.

Ema nodded. "And not just that, but did you see those huge cameras they lug around? It looks more like somebody nearby took this on their phone. Even if it's kind of dark, those paparazzi cameras take pretty decent quality shots."

"So then what?" her sister asked. "You think it was someone from work?"

"I think it had to be someone from work," she replied tersely as the car rolled into the precinct's parkade. It would come as no surprise to her if some ditzy beat cop with a hard-on for Klavier decided to feed the media out of revenge. "When I find out who, I'm gonna..."

Lana parked in one of the stalls, shutting off the engine of her car before she placed a hand on Ema's shoulder. "Honestly, you're acting like this is the end of the world. It'll be tough today and maybe for the next couple of weeks, but it's all going to blow over," she assured her younger sister with a smile.

"How do you know?" Ema shot back doubtfully.

"Because that's just how these things work," the private detective stated as if it were simple. "Trust me, as long as you sort things out with Prosecutor Gavin everything will go back to normal. People care about this because it's new and interesting. Once the story gets old, they'll move on to the next big thing."

Well, it was solid advice considering there wasn't much else she could do anyway. Ema was certainly not looking forward to "sorting things out" with Klavier, but that was her own fault. Now she wished she'd just let him keep yelling at her. Things probably would have turned out much better than they were right now.

"I'll do my best not to do anything newsworthy," she sighed, leaning into the headrest of the seat. Letting out a long breath, she opened the door and stepped out. "Thanks for everything, sis."

Lana offered her another reassuring smile. "Everything will be fine. Let me know if you need a lift home, okay?"

"'kay."

Shutting the door, she watched as her sister pulled out of the parking spot and out of the parkade. That was the easy part of her day leaving in a puff of carbon monoxide. For all the blunt comments her sister made, she was easy to talk to and was always looking out for Ema's best interests. That woman was the one reason Ema felt like she really might make it out of this situation alive. Mustering up as much courage as she could, Ema marched straight into the precinct, head held high.

...And was promptly met with every single pair of eyes on her.

God, that was unnerving. Obviously she worked with a lot of the officers, but it wasn't as if she really knew most of them. This sucked. Even wearing a completely different outfit, everyone knew what she looked like because she was such a high-ranking detective at the station. Oh sure, nobody cared that she'd been the one responsible for a massive drug bust this morning, but they were all fascinated by her love life. It was good to know that the police had their priorities in order.

Trying to ignore all the stares she was getting, she made her way to her desk and thumped down in her seat, glaring at anyone who dared lock eyes with her. She didn't even bother waiting to open her desk drawer to pull out the bag of Snackoos she had in there. Ema stuffed a handful of munchies in her mouth before she contemplated starting on her arrest report. She'd barely been awake for more than three hours and this was already shaping up to be the worst day of her life.

Just as she threw her stack of papers onto her desk out of the cesspool of old documents sitting in one of her lower drawers, Officer Tymid came up to her. The detective paused abruptly in her sorting to glance sharply at other female. This girl was one of the many who had had a thing for Gavin since day one; maybe she was the secret photographer who was responsible for the current whirlwind of crap that was slapping Ema in the face.

"Um, Detective Skye...?" the young officer started nervously. "The-the commissioner...he w-wants to talk t-to you..."

"Figures," Ema grumbled, standing from her seat with nothing else to say to her subordinate.

"And—!" Tymid squeaked sharply, even surprising Ema with her call to attention. "I just wanted to say...um, c-congratulations!"

Stunned by the declaration, the forensic investigator could only stand there while the girl scurried off in a fit of terror. Well, so much for her being the photographer. She doubted Officer Tymid could even testify in court without drowning in her own tears.

With that out of the way, she headed into the commissioner's office and proceeded to have the most awkward conversation of a lifetime. He had seen the media this morning, and while it wasn't necessarily a good or bad thing, he needed to know how long this had been going on. A week? A month? A year? It was very important that he know in case someone tried to overturn a conviction on the grounds of evidence tampering between the prosecutor and his lead detective. There was nothing going on? Oh, he wasn't so sure about that. He might be an old man, but he knew love when he saw it! Them young'uns these days, always playing games instead of keeping it plain and simple! Now love was great and all, but she should really make sure she kept it separate from work because she was one of his best detectives and nobody closed more cases than she and Prosecutor Gavin! Maybe the two of them could go on a double date with him and his wife sometime! But that was a plan for another day.

And that was how Ema had been thoroughly traumatized by the police commissioner.

Though everyone continued to stare at her, she really didn't mind being told to stay in the precinct for the rest of the day. Apparently paparazzi was scattered around the front door, and even in the place that contained a ton of cops, they couldn't get rid of every single lowlife reporter that was parading around. The commissioner didn't want any of them following her to a crime scene, but he also emphasized that she deserved an easy day after the big bust that went down hours earlier. As long as people left her alone, Ema was perfectly content to spend her day cooped up at her desk. It would also be really nice if nobody else tried to congratulate her for something that was a much messier situation than they imagined.

Of course, she would never be so lucky. It was only a minute later that Dayton approached her desk in the midst of her pondering if the day could possibly get any worse. She really shouldn't have tempted fate...

"Ema... I need to talk to you," he said, looking troubled. She had never seen him so unkempt, his hair messy and eyes bloodshot. If she didn't have so much on her plate, she might pity him.

Unfortunately, she wasn't in any sort of mood to be nice, so she leaned back into her chair and glanced at him lazily. "So talk."

Dayton's eyes darted around quickly, obviously wanting to go somewhere private. Ema was not feeling generous enough to give him that option, so he pulled up the chair at the side of her desk usually reserved for felons she was booking and sat down.

"Look, I...did something," Dayton started shakily.

The detective's eyes narrowed. "Like what?"

"After you blew me off this morning to talk to Prosecutor Gavin, I...I felt slighted. I was on my way back into the house when I decided that I was going to apologize, but when I found you two, you were in a bit of a...compromising position." He refused to meet her eyes and Ema's blood started to boil as she saw exactly where this was going. "That photo of you two circulating around... I was the one who took it."

Dayton paused, fidgeting with the sleeves of his lab coat. "I just...seeing you with someone like Prosecutor Gavin. I..."

"I see how it is," she cut in as she rose from her seat. She couldn't even focus properly, she was so angry. She had smacked a few people in the face yesterday, but god, she really wished she could do that right now. "You don't like Prosecutor Gavin and you were you mad that I chose someone like him over you, is that right?"

He swallowed. "Y-yes."

Furious, Ema couldn't stop her tirade even if she wanted to. "And you took it as soon sort of personal insult that it was him and not you, is that right?"

"I'm sorry, Ema," Dayton apologized in a small voice. "You're right. About all of it. I sent in that photo because I was mad and I wanted you to see the kind of life you would have with someone like him, but the moment I did it...I knew it was wrong. I-I couldn't sleep all night. I didn't want to be responsible for the reason you're suffering."

"Oh, well great job, Dayton! Because I'm having a ball!" she retorted sarcastically, voice rising. Heads were turning in their direction, but at this point, she didn't care who was looking at her.

"I'm sorry. I really am. After seeing the public reaction, I realized how poorly I've been treating you, disrespecting your decisions and thinking I know what's best. I'm not the person I thought I was and my actions are proof of that." He was cradling his forearms, as if trying to shrink into himself. For once, this was a Dayton she could deal with. "I'm putting in my request for a transfer later today. I won't bother you anymore, Ema. I'm...really, really sorry."

She'd never liked him before, but she really hated him today. Ema saw this sorry excuse for a man looking like a deflated balloon and she could barely drum up any compassion for him. Knowing that he felt his intellect was superior to hers, even if she'd always suspected he thought so, didn't help his case. He was the one who took that goddamn photo of her and Klavier in a private moment before sending it to the press as some stupid act of vindication to show that Klavier wasn't good for her. She was actually contemplating the likelihood that she could avoid an assault charge if she let herself surrender to her rage.

Of course, she was not that kind of person, and no matter how angry she was, she considered all sides of the situation. Dayton did seem genuinely remorseful for what he'd done, especially since he'd walked right up to her and admitted his wrongdoings to her face. Not only had he apologized to her three times, but he had also knocked himself off his high horse and acknowledged that he was kind of an asshole. Those were all things she respected.

"I'm not going to forgive you," she told him coldly, "but I appreciate your apology."

He stared at his shoes and nodded. Finally, he stood up and began to head back towards the lab.

"Dayton, wait," Ema called to him in a softer tone. "You should consider Prosecutor Sahdmadhi for your transfer. He could use some good lab techs in Khura'in."

Dayton give her a weak smile. "Sure. Thank you."

It felt like such a final conversation. For all the trouble it had been putting up with him, Ema was glad their interaction had ended on a fairly positive note. There was really nothing more courageous than a face-to-face apology. Dayton had screwed her over majorly, but he had done the right thing in the end. That was really all you could do when you made a mistake: say you were sorry and try not to let it happen again. That was...the best thing a person could do...

"You said you didn't want this."

"I care about him, Lana, but I don't want this."

Ema sighed. That picture wouldn't have even existed if it wasn't for her. Dayton hadn't done the right thing, but neither had she. There was no sense in blaming it all on him.

She had some apologies to make too.

At six, Ema's shift ended and she had never been so glad to leave work. Never in her life had she been interrupted so many times by other people around her office. Most wanted to congratulate her for making what most people considered "a great catch" in Klavier Gavin; others wanted to know all the juicy details of their relationship. One beat cop even alleged that Ema was lucky, saying that she'd never have to work again. She shut his mouth by letting him know that he'd be working forever as a beat cop if he didn't start minding his own business. At the end of the day, she was surprised she had gotten anything done at all with the amount of people who suddenly decided they wanted to talk to her.

It didn't help that she felt worse with every person who claimed to be happy for them. With all that was happening, she hadn't really had time to think about the reason she'd basically been up all night. She'd already been upset before finding out about the tabloids because of her fight with Klavier and the very confusing way it ended. The fact that it went public just mixed more issues into an already complicated situation. She hadn't heard from him all day, which was unusual since they were generally in touch about open cases. Klavier was undoubtedly already working on the case against the drug traffickers they'd caught this morning and he hadn't said anything. For the first time, he was really going out of his way to avoid her.

Ema walked down to the parkade to meet her sister for a ride home. Always one for being on time, Lana was already parked there when she reached her destination. Glad to be in the sanctuary of her sister's presence, she wasted no time in getting into the car.

"Hey. So was your day as bad as you thought it would be?" Lana asked her a little teasingly.

"If you had been a fly on the wall during my meeting with the commissioner, you wouldn't be laughing right now," she replied dryly. "I did find out who took the photo though."

"Really? Who?"

"I'll tell you in a second, but first, I need a favour," Ema said. "I need to...talk to Klavier."

Lana smiled. "Say no more."

They reached the apartment only fifteen minutes later with Ema explaining everything that happened with Dayton during the ride. Lana was also gracious enough not to pry at all about what her intentions were going to talk to Klavier and simply wished her good luck as she stepped out of the car. The car left and Ema found herself standing in front of a fancy apartment building with no reason to get in. She was also just randomly loitering around the sidewalk and though she had her "disguise" on, the detective was a little wary of being this exposed when she was prime tabloid material. Being spotted in front of Klavier's apartment was not going to bode well for her. Fortunately, there was a doorman there, meaning she had a chance of convincing him to let her inside somehow. At least it wasn't just straight electronics.

She approached the doorman, not really sure what to say. "Uh..." Ema began brilliantly as she began to lower her sunglasses off her face.

The doorman looked at her coolly, then smirked. "Ah, Mr. Gavin's girlfriend. Go right on in."

Ema flushed crimson but strode through the door. Well, she had definitely been recognized and his assumption was off, but at least this time it was in her favour.

She took the elevator up to the top floor where his penthouse was, trying not to think of much of anything. At this point, she couldn't lose her nerve. If she decided to turn around, there was no ride to get home and no way this was going to get any easier anyway. Of course, the silence that accompanied her in the elevator all the way to the top floor wasn't helping. Even some cheesy music would've been preferable.

Then again, she found herself at his front door far too quickly to have a good reason for disparaging the lack of elevator music. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.

No answer.

Ema knocked a second time and again received no answer. Great. He wasn't home yet and she had nowhere to go. She knew she could call him, but she was fairly certain he wouldn't answer. Why would he when he was avoiding her?

Instead, she slid down the wall until she was seated, hugging her knees into her chest. She'd been doing some avoidance herself. What happened after the drug bust had kept her up this morning until the distraction of the tabloids had come to light. Now there was no way she couldn't face this. Ema had kissed Klavier, an action that had been unprovoked and, clearly by some measure, unwanted. She'd thought the days of boys running away from her because she had "cooties" were over sometime between elementary and middle school, but way she had sent her prosecutor running for the hills a little over thirteen hours ago seemed to disprove this.

That wasn't it and she knew it. Ema had been the one to request nothing more than friendship. When she recognized the emotion in his eyes, she stepped over the line without even thinking. To him, there was rejection before he could express himself. He hadn't tried but it didn't matter; his passionate anger was the same as her own and she knew exactly what it meant.

That knowledge had drawn her to him. Ema wasn't about to deny it. After all, it had been her legs, her arms, and her lips that had gotten her into this situation. Klavier hadn't ever done a thing to try and seduce her. Sure he was nice to her, but he was nice to most people. He'd ever only used his charm on her expecting it to be thrown back dryly in his face, which she was happy to do. She knew that she hadn't fallen in love with him for any sort of shallow reason; she knew exactly who he was. Maybe that was why it felt like the worst thing ever when he'd reacted the way he did, so sincere but so quick to just leave her. Ema had been awake for hours replaying it over in her mind, watching his back retreat into the distance until she could no longer see him. With each mental loop, her heart hurt a little more until she fell asleep.

The ping of the elevator alerted Ema to its doors sliding open. She looked up towards the noise and found her eyes meeting the stunned visage of the man she'd been waiting for. His brow furrowed and he looked away as he stepped out of the elevator. Slowly, Ema got to her feet and stood in silence while Klavier walked past her without so much as another glance her way. She watched as he unlocked the door without a word and entered his condo.

"You can come in if you want," he said, leaving her outside in the hall. He didn't shut the door behind him. She followed him in.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked as soon as the door was closed. He was placing his things on the island in the kitchen, busying himself with sorting the change in his pocket one by one so he didn't have to look at her.

"Yes," he replied shortly, nothing on his face betraying any of his emotions.

Ema crossed the floor to stand at the other side of the counter. "Are you...in love with me?"

He paused, his finger on a quarter. "…Yes."

Hearing him say it for himself made her blush and sent her heart racing. The heartbeat was so loud she could hear it in her ears. "You didn't say anything," she pointed out quietly.

"Because I wasn't before," Klavier replied. He slid the quarter over to join the two others he had already sorted. "You came here to talk, but do you even understand why I'm angry?"

Her reply was soft, embarrassed. "Because I kissed you?"

He shook his head, finally meeting her eyes with a frustrated expression. "I liked you for a long time, Ema. After I pushed my prejudice aside, I could see you were a talented detective, and after each conversation, I found myself opening up to you more. I never wished for anything more than friendship because I knew you disliked me, but when you told me you loved me, you opened that door," he explained, words spilling out as if his self-control had finally crumbled. "Then you drew a line that you didn't want to cross and that was fine until you broke your own rules."

"I know I...shouldn't have kissed y—"

"It's not about the kiss!" he snapped as he threw a dime down onto the counter. It bounced off the surface twice before skittering off onto the hardwood with a clink. Ema stared at him anxiously, her breaths shallow. "It's about you touching me when you don't need to, using me as an excuse to escape from suitors—bringing me to meet your family!" Klavier ran a hand through his bangs, letting out an aggravated breath. "Of course I fell in love with you; you let me."

She swallowed, feeling ashamed of herself. All those things had seemed fine in her mind before today, but now it was obvious that she had been sending Klavier some seriously mixed signals. That hadn't been her intention—or maybe it was. She didn't know. Lana seemed to think it was. After all, actions spoke much louder than words. Otherwise she wouldn't have kissed him, right?

"I don't want to play this game," Klavier said quietly. He was bracing his hands against the edges of the island leaving the rest of the change in as much of a scattered mess as she felt.

God, she had screwed up so much. Trying just to pretend that her feeling hadn't changed anything was the biggest mistake of all. She hadn't even realized half the things she was doing to contradict herself, but that told her everything she needed to know right now. As a cop, the media could be a really good or bad thing depending on how they got their information; as a person who was in love with a celebrity, the media was her worst nightmare, but Ema was going to own the outcome of her actions. She had led both of them to this pitfall of publicity and emotion.

There weren't a lot of things she was entirely sure of. She wasn't sure how she was going to handle this media attention when she couldn't count on Lana to be at her beck and call for however long that was. She wasn't sure if she really wanted a relationship right now because it was something she had put out of her mind and labeled as being too troublesome. She wasn't even sure if coming here was going to fix everything or make it worse. But the one thing she was sure of was held in that moment she had seen Klavier staring down the barrel of a gun. She couldn't lose him, and that was all she could act on right now.

"I'm not playing a game," Ema finally told him as she pulled a stool out from under the counter, setting herself on it. Her voice was unsteady and her fingers trembled as her hands balled into fists against her pants. "I'm sorry...for jerking you around these last couple of months. I just think...maybe I've been lying to myself because I haven't been thinking at all about being in love, and then it happened and I didn't want to deal with it. I've been running away from my own feelings...because it's easier. I don't want that anymore."

"Then...what do you want?"

It was nearly the same question he had asked her back then when Ema had thoughtlessly blurted out her feelings in a rush to salvage both her job and their relationship. She'd answered honestly but selfishly. That response had protected her from further vulnerability at his hands. She wasn't about to make that mistake again. She couldn't make the mistake of hurting him again.

"I just..." Shit. Her eyes burned. Her throat was tight and it felt like there was a stone in her chest. What was wrong with her? Ema Skye did not cry over boys, but she couldn't hide her fear. She didn't care about rejection, but for the first time, she was seriously scared that she'd done too much damage and that he would walk away. For all that he annoyed her, she could no longer imagine a life without him in it. "I don't want to lose us. I don't want to lose you," she said, voice cracking as she wiped her eyes on the side of her palm.

She didn't even notice that he'd come around the island until his hand was caressing her face, wiping a tear away. His face was blurred in her watery vision, but she could still his blue eyes looking into her own. Ema felt stupidly exposed and like a huge idiot for crying, yet somehow knew he wasn't judging her for it.

"You aren't going to lose me," he assured her softly before leaning in close. He hesitated only for a second, then pressed his lips against hers.

It was the weirdest, saltiest kiss she'd ever had. She clung to his words, suddenly feeling as if nothing else mattered. Her arms went around his neck, deepening the kiss. He held onto her waist as the heat rose between them. Hands started wandering, hers pushing the sport coat off his shoulders before finding the buttons on his shirt and his running up along the skin of her spine. Clothes hit the floor and she was lifted off the stool. She knew where this was going and only pulled him closer, wanting to take in every part of him. This was what everything had built up to. The tension, the emotions, the misunderstandings... She wasn't going to lose him.

A moan broke through her lips. There was a burning desperation inside of her that needed the raw intensity of this moment the same way it was radiating off him. She wanted to know more of him.

The bedroom door closed behind them and everything else fell away until only clarity remained.

She wanted to be with him.