Page 216 of Ruin Me Gently

I felt that. Felt it in a way I wasn’t prepared for. Because I understood it.

Not in the same way, not exactly. But enough. Enough to know how unfair it was. Enough to know what it was like to keep moving forward, keep existing, while someone else never got the chance. Enough to know how it felt to live in years that should’ve belonged to someone else.

Her eyes glossed over. She looked like she was trying to hold it together, pressing the weight down, locking it away somewhere deep.

And I knew that look.

I fuckinghatedthat I knew that look.

In the moments she thought no one was looking. In the quiet spaces between her sarcasm, in the way she turned her head when something hit too close. In the too-long blinks, the slow exhales, the way she chewed the inside of her cheek like she could hold back everything she refused to say.

It hit. Hard. I didn’t know what to do. So I brushed my thumb over her knuckles. “Pick a star.”

She turned to me, blinking like she wasn’t sure she heard me right. “What?”

I nodded toward the sky. “Pick a star. Claim it.”

After a second, she looked up, scanning the night sky. “That one,” she whispered, pointing towards the vast stretch of black.

I followed her gaze and squeezed my hand. “Then that one’s yours.”

She didn’t say anything, just kept looking at it, like it was hers now, like she was letting herself have it.

She deserved that. She’d been through too much. Too much bullshit, too much hurt, too many people who should’ve protected her and didn’t. Too many things she never should’ve had to survive. But she was still here. Still fighting. Still finding pieces of herself in the night sky, claiming something small but bright as her own.

I tugged her gently, pulling her into the space between my legs.

“Eat,” I said, plucking a strawberry from a container and holding it to her lips.

She huffed a laugh. “Are we really back to the baby bird treatment?”

“Yes.”

For a few minutes, we just sat there, eating in comfortable silence, passing bits of food back and forth, the city humming softly beneath us.

“I’d give you all the stars if I could, sweetheart.”

She glanced over her shoulder, eyes catching mine. I let my gaze flicker over her face, over the soft curve of her cheek, the slope of her nose.

I meant it. I really did. “I’d give you anything.”

Her breath stalled, but just as quickly, she cleared her throat, brushing invisible lint off her legs. “Big talk, Silas. You planning on lassoing that moon you hung back down for me?”

I shifted, tilted forward, tightening my grip on her hips, then pressed a soft, slow kiss against her neck.

No words.

She turned her head toward me. Silver eyes caught mine, lips parted, breath warm.

My hand slid higher, knuckles dragging along her thigh. I kissed her, pulling her closer, tilting her chin up, capturing her mouth with mine. She met it, soft and wanting, fingers tangling in my hair, stealing the breath right out of my lungs.

I groaned against her, deepening it, tugging her fully into my lap, her knees bracketing my thighs, her body pressing into me perfectly.

The rooftop, the city, the stars—none of it mattered.

It was just Lilith.

Her hands sliding over my jaw, her body melting into mine, the heat of her against me, the way she tasted. I needed more.

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