Epilogue

Kimba holdsthe attention of every eye in the room. Her skin glitters in ways they can't comprehend, and I let my retinas burn, just a little, to see her better.

Her routine has changed in subtle ways.

No more big drops, no moves that hit her stomach against the pole… eventually the others will see the evidence of what I already know.

"Congratulations," Ganfrey says, leaning on the bar beside me. "It seems that the saints are in a mood to give you everything you've ever wanted."

"It seems they are."

"Change is good." He says, nodding as he takes a sip and I wonder if he means the changes to the council.

Kimba took my seat. Rose travels from Gongii to fill Roiban's and the other new members have proven to be reasonable.

I get to enjoy the feeling of arguing with Lutheil without any of the headache.

Margot taps Ganfrey on the shoulder from behind the bar. "She's ready for you."

He chose to get his lessons from a different dancer. Wishing me well, he heads downstairs to learn from her.

I watch as Kimba finishes her performance, trying to ignore the neon painted woman leaning over the bar beside me.

But Margot won't be ignored.

Kimba spirals down the pole and into the floor, blowing a kiss to me before she disappears. Only then do I give a shred of attention to her boss.

"What can I do for you, Margot?"

She snorts. "You can't do anything for me, brother."

Again, the way she calls me that leaves me unsettled.

"I'm feeling nice tonight," she says sliding a drink my way. "You can both leave out the same door. Since I know you've got ‘better' places to be."

"I'll follow the rules." I tip the drink back. "I already owe you too much."

"Yes, you do." She chuckles. "Remember that when I finally come to collect my favor."

"That sounds like a threat."

"It might be. I haven't decided yet."

I wait another ten minutes before I leave through the door for patrons. I wait in the parking lot at our car, watching the employee entrance all the while.

My heart lifts when I see her, and it lifts again when she sees me.

She runs across the pavement to me and hops into my arms.

"Hi." She kisses me. "Take me home?"

"Always."

Kimba still dances five nights a week. She needs the energy release and several of her friends refuse to come to the outpost to visit. I don't blame them.

And once a week… on my night off, I still come to her.

But we leave after her second dance, instead of going downstairs.

After we've parked in her garage and she's done her override trick to send the elevator straight to the seventy-third floor, we take our time getting from the front door and up to the bed, but once we're there…

Sitting at the foot of the bed, Kimba angles her hips, and her hand grips my cock, stroking me to steel. "Do you know what today is?" she asks.

"How could I forget?" Three years ago, she came to me for the first time.

"I spent that first night, terrified. Frozen, just staring up at the mirrored ceiling."

"I know."

"I think I was already aware of why you terrified me."

"There are a lot of reasons you should have been."

"I think I knew from the moment I saw you that there was no chance I wouldn't fall in love with you." She draws her thumbs along my lip. "I'd be lying if I said you didn't still terrify me a little."

"Three years is too short a time to know much with certainty." I hold her back against me, chin resting on her shoulder as we both watch the glittering lights outside. "I've made many mistakes. But loving you… waiting for you… Is the one thing that I know I will never regret."

I hold her open as I gently rock into her. With the lights off, we're not really on display, but I press a kiss to the crook of her neck and say, "I would fuck you for the whole world to see. Just so they know I'm yours."

"We're going to have to take a break soon." She kisses me and sweeps my hand over her stomach to place my fingers on her clit. "The consequences of your actions."

I chuckle as I toy with her clit.

"Consequences I will gladly face, whenever you're ready for me to do so again." I kiss her shoulder and drink in the rush of desire that floods through our bond as my hand and cock work in tandem.

I want every part of her… even the so-called consequences.

I want her past, her present and her future.

Good or bad.

She'd asked if we should sell this place and get something new, but I don't want that.

She has started calling it our ojuin—our love nest—a private place where the responsibilities of the Zone can't touch us. It faces south, so we can't even see the mountains.

The faint light from the building exterior makes it so that I can see her though. She is utterly beautiful. She's mine.

And I'm never going to let her go.