Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 482: Aftercare

The moment Luca came, he pushed me over the same cliff for the third time that night. Neither one of us was moving, and even our breaths synced up as we struggled to breathe.

The silence after everything was almost reverent.

He stayed inside me, arms braced around my body, his forehead resting against mine like he couldn’t bear to move just yet. I could feel his heartbeat against my chest, wild at first... then slowly settling. Matching mine.

It was strange—how something so rough, so consuming, could end in a stillness like this. Like the world had pressed pause just for us.

"You okay?" he asked quietly, fingers brushing sweaty hair from my face. He searched my face for the truth, even as he waited for me to answer. He wasn’t going to accept anything that wasn’t the absolute truth, and I really liked that right about now.

After that intimacy, lying to the man felt like sacrilege.

Nodding my head, my throat tight, it took me a couple of minutes to get the words past my mouth. "Yeah... you?"

"I don’t think I’ve ever felt more okay in my life," he whispered, and the softness in his voice hit harder than anything else tonight. "Not after that. Not after you."

He kissed me again—this one gentle, almost shy. Like we hadn’t just shattered each other a few minutes ago.

"I need to know that that was okay for you. I wanted to be everything you needed," he murmured against my lips. "But I was scared I’d get it wrong. That if I rushed it, I’d ruin something sacred. Then I rushed..."

I let him pull out slowly, and he grabbed a nearby towel to clean me with careful hands. No teasing. No smugness. Just quiet focus as if he was terrified of hurting me now that the urgency had passed.

"You did perfect," I assured him, stroking his sweaty face. I didn’t stop him from caring for me. Looking at his face, I knew he needed this moment as much as I did. My body jerked, remembering pleasant memories as he wiped between my legs, pressing a kiss to my inner thigh when he was done, like it was a thank you.

He looked up at me, eyes filled with something soft and wordless. Devotion, maybe. Or worship.

Maybe both.

"I can’t go another round," I pleaded, my eyes watering even as my body reacted to his touch. "I’m too tired."

Luca slipped back under the covers beside me, tugging me into his arms. Skin to skin. Heart to heart. His hand rested flat over my stomach, his thumb rubbing soft circles into my side. "We have the rest of our lives to keep going," he assured me. "We don’t need to get a thousand years of making love into only a single night."

"A thousand years?" I purred, raising an eyebrow even as I cuddled even deeper into his embrace. "Do you think that’s how long we have?"

His warmth seeped into me slowly, like sunlight on winter skin. For the first time in what felt like days, I wasn’t cold.

"I want every day until the very universe ceases to exist," assured Luca. "I’m just sorry it’s taken me so long to get to this moment."

"Why now?" I asked after a long moment, voice barely above a whisper. "Why tonight?"

He didn’t answer right away, just tightened his grip a little, like I might drift away if he loosened it.

I really hated to break it to him, but I didn’t have a bone in my body at the moment—I was pretty sure I wasn’t going anywhere.

"Because I thought I had time," he said finally. "I thought that since neither one of us could die, we would have the rest of eternity to cement our relationship. I didn’t want to rush. You’ve barely experienced the world, and I didn’t want to hold you back. But then it hit me, I didn’t have the time to drag my feet. Not really. You disappear into other worlds, into wishes, into chaos. Every time I blink, you’re gone again. And I’m scared, Hattie."

He exhaled shakily. "I’m scared that one day, you’ll vanish for good—and I’ll be left wondering why I didn’t give you everything when I had the chance."

My chest squeezed, sharp and sudden. He wasn’t usually this open, not like this.

I didn’t want to ruin the moment, but I still wanted to argue with that statement. I needed to tell him he was overreacting. That I always came back. But even as I opened my mouth, the words stuck in my throat—because deep down, I knew he wasn’t wrong. There could come a day when I didn’t return. When a wish pulled me too far, when a realm didn’t spit me back out, when the house forgot to leave a door open. ƒгeewebnovёl.com

I hated that he knew my situation that well. That he knew exactly what I faced... and that it made him worried.

I turned in his arms until we were face to face.

"You did," I said. "Tonight, you took the chance, and it will be something that I never forget, no matter how long I live."

His eyes searched mine, still wide and dark, and for once... not haunted. He was in the moment. I had grounded him, and now that I had him, I wasn’t letting him go anywhere.

I reached up and brushed his cheek with my knuckles. He leaned into it like it meant something. Like I meant something.

"You’re stuck with me now," I whispered, trying to make him smile. "No refunds. No exchanges."

He chuckled softly, that warm little laugh I rarely got to hear.

"Good," he said, pressing a kiss to my brow. "I wouldn’t want to return you anyway. You’re a little scratched up, but perfect where it counts."

I snorted. "Romantic."

"Accurate."

I leaned in and kissed him. Slow. Soft. Not as the Devil. Not as the wish-granter.

Just as me.

And when we finally fell asleep again, tangled together in the warm tangle of sheets and each other, the house stayed silent.

For once... it let me rest.