Eli and Gordo had been sick for the past week. Mason looked like he'd gotten into a fight with a chupacabra and lost. Poor Carter looked thinner and paler than normal. The other TCC guys weren’t faring much better. Our bodies weren't made to be on the move so much on such erratic sleep and inconsistent diets, but our hearts were trying to keep up.

I think the only thing that kept me going was Sassy.

And the piece of Malykhin between his thighs.

Ever since that night in Zurich, we had turned into horny teenagers. No bathroom or hotel room was spared. It was fucking fantastical. Magical. A wet dream come true.

My heart and body weren’t match for this man.

"It's not my fault that I know how to play the game," I laughed.

He flicked me on the forehead. "There's no strategy to it, you're just getting lucky."

Taking a card from the deck, I threw it at his face. "There is a strategy. You can't keep putting down all your Draw Fours and Draw Twos when you get them, duh. You need to wait until you only have a few cards left, and then make me eat shit."

"That doesn't make any sense," he frowned, poking me in the side before putting down a blue four.

I groaned and put down a blue Skip. "Says the man who hasn't beat me once."

Sacha laughed. "I can beat you at plenty of other things."

Which was the truth but I shrugged, smiling. "Maybe but not this, sucker."

Four moves later, I'd won again. He grabbed the messy pile of cards and tossed them in the air with a snort. "That's what I think about you winning."

"You suck."

He fell back onto the bed, pulling me down alongside him. "You suck way better than I do," he murmured, kissing my neck.

I shivered, tilting my head up so he could get a better angle for more skin. "True."

Sacha dragged his hot tongue over the shell of my ear. "Gaby?"

"Yes?"

His hand slowly stroked down my arm. "We only have a week left," he said in a soft voice, reminding me that our time together was coming to an end.

I moved my head to kiss his jaw, ignoring the anxiety it caused in my stomach. "I know."

"What are we going to do?"

Clear gray eyes met mine, something like worry or sadness filled in the edges of his lashes. I'd been meaning to ask him about it, but I was a chicken. In that moment, I regretted that I hadn't brought it up earlier.

"Make it work?" I offered him.

He threw his head back and laughed. "No shit." Fingers wrapped around my wrist, pulling my hand to his chest. "This has to work."

"Oh yeah?"

Sacha nodded, still smiling. "Yeah, Princess. It does."

I kissed his cheek, slinking one leg between his. "I know." I kissed his cheek again. "Who else is going keep you entertained if you don't have me?"

After a brief pause with no answer, we looked at each other and laughed.

"Julian?"

He kissed my nose while his chest vibrated with a rough chuckle. "I love you."

The admission crushed my heart, flattening it out and ruining it for the rest of my existence. "I know."

"You do?" he asked me softly.

"Yep." I pulled away from him to get a better glimpse at the smooth texture of the skin on his face and the long, dark lashes that framed his colored eyes. It wasn’t necessary to think of all the things he did and had done to let me know he cared about me, mainly because for the first time in my life, I felt his affection. His attention. I felt Sacha in a way that had no explanation or reason. I knew love in its many forms. I knew how I loved Eli in a way that made perfect sense because we’d been stuck together for so long. I knew how I loved the other two baboons, but this… was nothing like that. It was undeniable, bright and massive.