Relief floods through me and my pulse kicks up a little. I weave my fingers into her hair and rub slow circles on her scalp. ‘I get it,’ I say softly, as she relaxes into my touch. ‘You told me from the start you didn’t date humans. I’m sorry I made your fear come true.’
I feel her smile against my chest. ‘You don’t need to be sorry,’ she said. ‘I decided you were worth fighting for, however scared I was. I was on my way back to find you when I saw Cam at the abbey.’
I feel it in my chest first– a swell of warmth that starts deep in my belly and ripples outwards, until every part of my body is engulfed with a feeling of contentment so intense that I have to close my eyes against it.
‘You were the first thing I looked for when I woke up,’ I whisper, and I feel her tiny gasp against me. When she sits up, her hair is a mess and her eyes are wet with tears.
‘I’m so sorry I wasn’t there,’ she whispers, running a cool finger across my cheekbone.
I lean into her touch, into how good it feels. ‘You’re here now.’
And then the most beautiful smile takes over her face, and if I weren’t already stupidly in love with her, I think that smile would have tipped me over the edge.
‘Yeah,’ she says as her fingers start to move, wrapping underneath my jaw and gently tipping my face upwards. She presses the softest of kisses to the corner of my mouth and then pulls back to meet my eyes again. ‘I am.’
It’s everything.
She’s everything.
And I’m suddenly overwhelmed by the urge to let her know exactly how much she means to me.
‘Florence,’ I say steadily, catching her face in both my hands. ‘I need to ask you something.’
Her smile pulls off to the side a little. ‘You’re not going to propose to me, are you?’
I was, actually, but her words stop me in my tracks. It’s probably for the best, anyway. My impulsive romantic gestures have rarely worked out well in the past. I do my best to style it out, but from the way her expression softens, it’s clear she’s seen right through me.
‘Quinn!’ She turns her head to one side and kisses my palm. ‘I think we need to get one life-changing event out of the way first without leaping into another, don’t you?’
That’s probably a better plan than whatever I had, but potential transition notwithstanding, I’d marry her right now if she was up for it. A smile takes over my face at the very idea.
‘How did you even know that’s what I was going to ask?’
‘Call it intuition,’ she says, her lips pulling into a small smile.
I huff in mock offence. ‘You haven’t got that mind-reading thing Bram has, do you?’
‘I can’t read your mind, you idiot,’ Bram says, striding back into the room with the other two hot on his heels. ‘I just pay attention.’
Florence moves off the bed and sits in the chair Bram was in before, reaching for my hand and slipping her fingers between mine. She looks between the men as if searching for a clue as to their findings, but I’ve spotted one already.
‘If Bram’s calling me an idiot again, I’m hoping that means it’s good news.’ I lean back against my pillows with a grin. ‘He’s been weirdly nice to me since I woke up.’
Even Bram can’t hold back his smile at that. ‘It’s good news.’
‘Introducing Elias’s cells to Quinn’s sample produced a perfect transition,’ Cam says, pushing his glasses up his nose. ‘Even in the early stages it was impossible to distinguish between the original invading cells from Abby and the new ones from Elias.’
‘It’s going to work?’ Florence’s relief bursts out of her in a sigh, and Cam nods, grinning so widely that his eyes almost disappear beneath the crinkle of his cheeks.
I close my eyes against the relief that’s flooding through me. ‘So when can we do it? I’m ready.’
Cam shrugs. ‘Ideally, you’d wait a few days for your body to recover more fully, but after that, whenever you like.’
‘How long are you here?’ Bram asks Elias, who’s leaning against the wall at the other side of me.
‘I fly back on Wednesday.’
‘Three days,’ Florence muses, her hand gently squeezing mine. ‘I think we can keep you out of trouble for that long.’