Page 195 of Controlled Burn
“But I’m not leaving without saying it.”
“Saying what?”
She brushed soot from his cheek—soft as ash on her palm. Felt the line of his jaw tighten beneath her touch.
“I’m not broken anymore.”
Dean’s breath hitched. “Good. Because I never wanted to save you.”
Her lips curved. “I just want someone who doesn’t flinch when I burn.”
“I don’t flinch.”
“I know.” Her voice glowed like embers.
Silence folded in—clean, charged. Engines cooled in their bays. Crews drifted past without glances.
Talia stepped forward. “Do you want to come with me?”
He blinked. “Where?”
“Anywhere I go next.”
He hesitated, then nodded. “I don’t want to stand behind you.”
“I’m not asking that. I want you beside me.”
That pause before his second nod held everything—grief, grit, love.
They didn’t need a spectacle. No kiss in the parking lot. No grand gesture.
Side by side, shoulders grazing, they walked toward her truck.
Quiet. Earned.
Like two survivors finding the same safe spot.
Later, in her apartment, the air smelled like stale takeout and something new.
Talia peeled off her station shirt, tossing it over the back of a chair. For a long moment she stood barefoot in her bedroom, staring at the dresser drawer she hadn’t opened in months. The yellow dress sat folded at the bottom, soft cotton bright as a warning flare.
She almost threw it away after that night. She hadn’t.
Not because of him.
Because of her.
She pulled it on slowly, the fabric clinging to smoke-slick skin, straps sliding over her freckled shoulders. She looked at herself in the mirror—older, harder, but still burning.
When she turned, Dean was in the doorway. His eyes widened like he’d taken a punch.
“That dress,” he said hoarsely.
She tilted her chin. “This time, I wore it for me.”
He crossed the room in two strides, reverence and hunger knotted in his jaw. His hands shook when he reached for her, not from hesitation—just from wanting.
The dress fell in a soft puddle at her feet when his fingers pushed the straps down. His mouth traced the curve of her collarbone, kisses slow, grounding.
