Page 84 of Rose
“I’m crazy over you because the woman you are makes me crazy.”
Ahzii sat stiff at first. Her instinct told her to move, to distance herself, to resist the warmth of his chest pressed against her back. But her body… her body stayed.
“You don’t even know me, Savior,” she snapped, turning her head slightly to catch his eyes. “You think you do, but you don’t.”
“I know enough,” he said, voice low, almost reverent. “I know you used to beam with light. I know something—something dark—dimmed that light. Took it. Tried to kill it.”
She blinked. His words cut too close to places she didn’t talk about. Places she didn’tgo.
“You used to live… love… laugh. But then life burned you. Literally. It took everything you once were. But Allure…” His eyes locked on hers with such intensity, it was almost a prayer. “I don’t see ashes when I look at you. I see the light still fighting to break through. I see a woman who’s terrified of being burned again.”
“That light died,” she said bitterly. “It’s not coming back.”
He didn’t flinch.
“You need to stop trying to save the woman I used to be, because she doesn’t fucking exist anymore. She’s gone, Savior. Gone.” Her voice cracked now, rising with every word. “So if you can’t deal with the woman that’s left—this version of me—then take me the fuck home. And stay your crazy ass out my life!”
Savior stared at her for a long, heavy moment.
Then, without a word, he grabbed her waist, flipped her onto her back in the sand, and hovered over her, his hands firm but careful, his body caging her in like she was something precious—but on fire.
Ahzii gasped, wind knocked out of her by the suddenness of it all.
He leaned down slowly, his breath warm against her lips. “That light ain’t dead, baby. You’re just too used to surviving in the dark to see it.”
She didn’t speak.
Couldn’t.
Because deep down, in the parts of her she swore no one would ever reach again…
She felt that fire flicker.
“What do you mean?” Ahzii whispered, her voice shaky, laced with a warning she didn’t even believe.
Savior didn’t answer. Not with words.
Instead, he lowered his face to hers, kissing her lips slow—so slow she felt it in her spine. His mouth moved like he had all night to remind her what it felt like to bewanted. When he trailed down to her neck, she flinched slightly, but he didn’t stop. His lips pressed to the center, then shifted to her rose tattoo.
He kissed it like it was sacred. Like heknew.
Ahzii’s eyes fell shut, her breath hitching as his mouth softened against the skin that still carried ghosts. Her fingers dug into the front of his shirt, holding him there, grounding herself in his heat.
Savior’s hands moved slow and deliberate across her body—palming her hips, gripping her waist, brushing the curve of her ass like he was memorizing every inch. There was nothing rushed about it. He wasn’t trying to fuck her. Not yet. He was trying tofeelher.
“I don’t want to save you… Allure,” he murmured against her throat, his voice gravel and sex, dark and deep. “I want tofeelyou.Seeyou.Healyou.”
Each word landed between kisses like confessions—kisses that slipped lower, scorching a path across her chest. When he kissed the top of her breasts peeking from the plunge of her dress, her moan spilled out raw and unfiltered.
Her body answered before she could.
Every nerve lit up, thighs pressing together like that could soothe the ache he stirred.
Her grief, the memories, the trauma of the night—they all drifted into background static. There was no fire. No death. No pain. Justhim.
“Will you let me do that, Allure?” Savior asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
His tongue traced the edge of her cleavage, his hand sliding up her thigh, fingers slipping under the hem of her dress so slow she nearly cried out.
