"Me neither. We'll be terrible together."
But we're not terrible. We move easily, naturally, like we've done this a hundred times.
"Thank you for tonight," I say. "This was perfect."
"It's not over yet."
"No?"
"I have one more thing planned."
He leads me to the edge of the terrace, where there's a telescope set up pointing at the sky.
"I thought we could look at stars," he says. "There's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight."
"You set up a telescope?"
"Viktor did. Under protest. But yes."
I look through the eyepiece, and the sky explodes with clarity. Stars I've never seen before, planets, the cosmic dust of distant galaxies.
"This is incredible," I breathe.
"I know you like astronomy. You mentioned it once."
"You remembered that?"
"I remember everything you tell me."
I pull back from the telescope to look at him. He's watching me with an intensity that makes my breath catch.
"What?" I ask.
"You're beautiful. And I'm an idiot for not telling you that sooner."
"You've told me plenty of times during sex."
"That doesn't count. I should tell you when we're not naked. When there's no agenda. Just because it's true."
My heart is doing dangerous things in my chest.
"Axel..."
"You're beautiful, Aurora. And smart. And brave. And you make me want to be better than I am."
"You're already pretty good."
"I'm a criminal who runs a violent organization and has more enemies than friends. I'm objectively terrible."
"You're also loyal and protective and surprisingly sweet when you want to be." I step closer. "And you make me feel safe even when everything's chaos."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
He kisses me. Soft, tender, nothing like our usual desperate encounters. Just his lips on mine under the stars.
"Take me to bed," I whisper against his mouth.