I can feel him hard against me, but he isn’t doing anything about it. He’s letting me catch up. He’s letting me arrive in the moment.
“I’m falling in love with you, Mat.”
The confession tumbles out of my mouth before I can stop it. I wish I could shovel it back inside right away, like the Hungry Hungry Hippo with Emotional Problems that I am. I haven’t said those words to anyone since Giana.
And in the silence that follows, I know deep in my soul that I f****d up. We’re good together, yeah, but love is a different thing entirely. I pushed, stupid me, and ruined it.
Matvei pulls back just enough to look at me. Whatever he sees on my face must be sufficient, because the half-smile that breaks across his is something I will think about for the rest of my life.
“Dikarka,” he whispers, “I
