Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
EMILIA
I didn’t move for a long time.
Luca’s heart was still pounding beneath my cheek, and Bastion’s breath was warm on my neck.
One of them had pulled a blanket over us — I hadn’t even noticed when.
My limbs felt heavy.
Not sore, just… full.
Full of them. Of everything they gave me.
Of everything I let them take.
Bastion’s hand never stopped moving. He brushed his knuckles down the back of my neck, over my spine, his thumb trailing soft circles at the base. Gentle. Unspoken. Like he was grounding himself with my skin.
Luca’s fingers traced light patterns along the outside of my thigh — barely-there touches that made me feel like glass. Fragile and precious.
No one spoke.
Not because there was nothing to say.
But because none of us wanted to break the quiet yet.
This was the part that hurt the most before .
When it ended too fast.
When I had to pull myself away and pretend like it hadn’t mattered.
But they weren’t letting go.
Bastion kissed the top of my spine. “You okay?”
I nodded, still against Luca’s chest.
“Talk to us, baby,” Luca murmured. “We need to know.”
I lifted my head slowly. “I’m… good. That was…”
They both waited.
“That was everything, ” I whispered.
Bastion’s eyes closed for a moment, like he needed the words to settle in.
Luca kissed my forehead. “We needed to show you.”
“You didn’t have to prove anything.”
“We weren’t proving something,” Bastion said softly. “We were claiming what’s already ours.”
I smiled faintly. “You always say that.”
“Because it’s always true.”
I sat up slowly, my muscles still trembling slightly.
Luca reached out to steady me, and I let him.
“Hey,” Bastion said gently, tipping my chin up. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I am,” I said honestly. “Just… trying to come back to earth.”
Luca ran a hand down my back, a little firmer now. “Then let us bring you back.”
He shifted me into his lap, so I was straddling him now, my head tucked beneath his jaw.
Bastion moved behind me, pressing his chest to my back, arms folding around my waist.
I was wrapped in them.
Held.
Cherished .
Bastion’s mouth brushed my shoulder. “You were so good for us.”
Luca pressed a kiss to my temple. “Letting us take care of you. Letting us love you.”
My throat tightened. “I love you too.”
Neither of them moved.
Then Bastion’s voice came again — low, rough. “You mean that?”
I nodded.
“I’ve loved you since that night in the dorm window,” Luca whispered.
“And I’ve hated every second we made you question it,” Bastion added, his voice breaking slightly. “That’s on us. But we’re done fucking around.”
I turned slowly in their arms so I could see them both —
Luca’s eyes, soft and wrecked.
Bastion’s jaw, clenched like he was still holding something back.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said. “But I need you to promise me something.”
“Anything,” Bastion said immediately.
Luca brushed my cheek with his thumb. “Whatever it is.”
“When this ends — when we leave the academy, and everything gets more complicated… don’t shut me out.”
They were quiet.
Then Bastion said, “We don’t want this to end.”
“It doesn’t,” Luca added. “Not unless you walk away.”
“I won’t,” I said, voice trembling. Until I’m told to I thought to myself.
Bastion kissed me — soft, nothing like before.
Just lips and breath and a promise I could feel in my chest.
Then Luca pulled me closer too, pressing his mouth to mine in a kiss that tasted like home .
And when we finally pulled apart, Bastion murmured, “Let us clean you up, baby.”
He lifted me gently from Luca’s lap, like I weighed nothing, carrying me toward the ensuite.
They washed me, in the shower, so carefully — soft touches, so much patience.
Luca knelt in front of me and ran his hands over my thighs like I was something sacred.
Bastion kissed my shoulder before wrapping a towel around me and guiding me back to bed.