Calder moves again, slowly this time, as if he's afraid to startle me. Each footstep behind me sends a shiver of anticipation through my body. I continue to stare down into the water, even as my nerves prickle at his approach.

When he's right behind me, he stops again. For the longest moment, he doesn't touch me, but his breath stirs the hair on my neck. I can feel the heat of his body up and down my naked back. When finally he reaches up and brushes his hands down the length of my arms, my heart is sprinting so fast I can hardly breathe. My skin trembles under his touch.

"Lily," he murmurs, his lips at my ear.

His fingers slide down my arms to my hands, then move to my hips. I arch back against him, and that's when I realize that he's naked, too.

I twist in his arms so that I’m facing him.

He’s beautiful. His eyes gleam with something deeper than lust, and I want to lose myself in them.

Sometime later we’ll have to start thinking about the sort of relationship we might have outside this place, removed from the magic of this house, beyond the games and the sex that brought us together. There’s so much I want to share with him—meaningful things, important things. I want to take him to the Center, show him the changes my dad and I have made. I want to talk to him about Garrett and all the other events, good or bad, that have shaped me into the person I am today. And I want him to share other parts of his life with me, too.

For now, though, I'm content to just be here in his arms.

“I win,” he says, leaning down and brushing his lips across mine.

“No,” I murmur against his mouth. “I think I did.”



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