Page 184 of Gamebreaker

"With me?"

"Very much with you." I pulled back far enough to see her face. "How are you doing?"

"Fine."

"Cam."

"Good. I'm good." She met my eyes. "Better than good."

"Okay." I touched her jaw. "I need to do the aftercare part now, so don't argue with me."

She blinked. "What?"

"You were very dominant for the last half hour. That comes with a requirement. Now, I'm going to take care of you." I slid off the counter, a little unsteady, and caught the edge. "Water first. Then the couch. And you're going to eat a snack and tell me how you feel, and I'm going to listen. That's how this works."

She looked at me with an expression I didn't have immediate words for.

"You've done this before?"

"I've read extensively," I said. "Water. Now. Go sit on the couch."

She went and sat on the couch, which I noted and appreciated. I grabbed my bonnet off the counter and tied it back on, because I'd be damned if my wash-and-go was going to suffer for this. I filled two glasses of water, grabbed the throw blanket off the arm of the armchair, and brought it all over. I handed her a glass, sat down next to her close enough that our legs touched, and pulled the blanket over both of us.

"Drink," I said.

She drank.

I watched her, the way her shoulders slowly eased, the way her breathing changed from that deep, focused rhythm to a slower one. I watched her come down from being so completely present in one direction for so long.

"How are you feeling?" I asked. I didn't mean it as a check-in. I meant it as a real question. I wanted a real answer.

She was quiet for a moment.

"Grounded," she said, like the word surprised her. "I don't know how else to say it. Like all of me is in the same place."

"That's the point," I said. "That's what it's supposed to feel like."

"You planned this."

"I told you. I read extensively."

"When?"

"Approximately argument number four. When I accepted that this was probably going to happen eventually and decided I was going to do it right."

"Harper," she said, her eyes burning.

"Yeah?"

"I..." She stopped, then started again, the way she did when she'd chosen honesty and decided to stick with it. "I've never had that. The after. People have always just..." She shook her head. "It's always been my job to take care of everyone."

"Not anymore," I said.

She looked at me for a long moment with the face she only wore when she wasn't being anyone but Cam.

"No," she said. "Not anymore."

I took her free hand and laced our fingers together, and she held on.