He leaned in, kissing me softly. The edges of his damp hair brushed my cheeks as he slanted his head, deepening the kiss until my heart was pounding.

I placed my hand over his chest, above his heart, and felt it match the rhythm of my own. My gaze lifted, and our eyes met. Somehow we ended up stretched out across the bed, my back curled against his front.

“I’m not finished healing you,” he said, voice gruff. His fingers trailed around a tender spot along my temple.

I closed my eyes, letting him do what he wanted. After all, it made him feel better. But the healing warmth slowly turned into something else when the tips of his fingers slipped down my arm, under my shirt, and across my stomach. There was nothing between his skin and mine.

“You’ve been using the Source a lot.” His hand flattened against my lower stomach, his pinkie finding a way under the loose band on my sweats. “It’s had to have worn you out.”

Another finger traveled under the band, and I wasn’t sure I was that worn out. My entire consciousness was focused on his hand—the weight and warmth of it, the exact positioning.

“Kitten?”

“Hmm?”

His voice was deep and smooth. “Just seeing if you’d passed out on me.”

“I’d never do such a thing.”

He was quiet for a moment. “You know what I’ve been thinking?”

With him, it was anyone’s guess. “What?”

“I was thinking about when all of this is over, where we are going to go.” Half of his hand was under the band now. “What we are going to do.”

“You have any idea?”

“I have lots of ideas.”

A hot, sweet feeling swept over me. “I bet you do.”

Daemon chuckled as his thumb moved in a slow, idle circle under my navel. “I was thinking college.”

“You think there’ll be colleges around after all of this?”

“I think so.”

The tips of two fingers delved low, causing my breath to catch. “Why do you think that?”

“Easy answer.” He dropped a kiss on my cheek. “If you’ve taught me anything, it’s that humans are resilient, more so than my kind. No matter what, they’ll keep forging on. So I can’t believe that there won’t be colleges and jobs or anything like that.”

My lips curved into a small smile as I decided to play along. “College would be good, I think.”

“I think you mentioned University of Colorado before,” he said, his fingers creeping farther south, causing the muscles in my lower stomach to clench. “What about that?”

I remembered the first time we’d talked about the university, and I’d been so worried that I’d been overstepping relationship lines. Seemed like forever ago. “I think that’s perfect.”

“I’m sure Dawson and Beth would like it there.” He paused. “So would Dee.”

“Yeah, she would.” Especially if Archer would be around, but then, we kind of needed to get Dee’s head on straight first. “Maybe . . . maybe I could get my mom to move out there, too.”

“Of course,” he murmured, and I bit down on my lip hard enough to taste blood as he managed to get his knee between mine. “Your mom has to be there, because we’re going to do it.”

My eyes widened. “Uh, I’m not sure that’s something I want my mom to be a part of.”

Daemon’s laugh tickled me. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Kitten. We’re going to do a real wedding. The whole thing—bridesmaids, best man, the pretty white gown, and the ceremony. Even a reception. Everything.”

My mouth opened, but there were no words. I got caught in the fantasy of a real wedding—of my mom being there to help me get into a beautiful Cinderella-type gown; of Dee and Lesa standing beside me; of Dawson, Archer, and even Luc as best men. Then there was Daemon in a tux, and damn, that was something I wanted to see again.

And there’d be pictures taken and pot roast served at the reception. There’d be a DJ playing questionable music, and then Daemon and I would have our first dance as husband and wife.

My heart kicked around in my chest, and I hadn’t realized until that moment how badly I wanted that. I was such a girl and I didn’t care.

“Kitten?”

“I like this,” I whispered as my chest squeezed. “Talking about this, I mean. It feels normal. It feels like we have a—”

Daemon had leaned over me, capturing my mouth with his. The kiss reached deep down inside me, lighting up every cell. “We do have a future.”

I stopped thinking as his lips returned to mine, and he eased me onto my back. The rest of the world, all the concerns and dangers, faded away until it was just the two of us. He did crazy insane things with his hand, and there was this rush of sensations that tossed me around like I was riding a wave. And when I came back down, I pushed him onto his back.

Daemon’s brows flew up as I hovered over him. “What are you—?”

He got with the program pretty quickly, and the edges of his body started to glow that luminous whitish-red as his hand curled around my damp hair. Before his lashes drifted down, his eyes were like rough diamonds, and the expression was sort of awed, even though I really had no idea what I was doing. But he seemed to love it, and I think it was because he loved me.

Later, we lay facing each other and we were quiet. I traced the line of his bottom lip, working up the nerve to ask him something I’d been curious about. “Why did you leave with them when they came?”