But actually getting physical with him?
That was, like, Def Con One level of dangerous.
I couldn’t risk getting hurt like that again.
I wasn’t sure I could get through it a second time.
Not with any sense of self intact anyway.
So I straightened up. I tucked my tits away. I yanked my pants back into place. Then I moved around Valen who was still trying to catch his breath and find his equilibrium.
I wished I could find something clever to say, some way to brush the whole thing off, but I was too busy trying to remind myself of all the reasons I couldn’t let myself start having romantic feelings toward him again.
So I just walked away.
And maybe that was poetic enough.
This time, I was the one to leave.
But it was probably too much to hope he felt even a bit of the same hurt that I’d felt all those years ago.