stunning ice-blue eyes were staring right back at me. Alec was on his back, one arm propped behind his head, the blanket pushed down around his hips. He was just as wide awake as me.
At the same time, we smiled, an exchange that wordlessly said both “Why aren’t you sleeping?” and “You can’t sleep either?”
I sighed lightly and inclined my head toward the door, raising my brows.
He nodded and, with lithe, completely soundless movements, managed to get up without jostling the three sleeping men jammed into bed with us. I knew he was highly trained in how to be super stealthy and shit, but that was seriously impressive. I’d have to get him to teach me how to do that.
I crawled over Tyler much less gracefully while Alec silently laughed at me. I flipped him off as I grabbed a light cardigan off the top of my bag and he pulled on a pair of pants.
I led the way through the house, past the sleeping men in the main room, and out the front door. Alec closed it softly.
He was in nothing but a black pair of pants; I was in a tank, shorts, and my loose cardigan. Thankfully, the cobblestones were still warm on my toes from the hot summer sun, and it was a mild night.
We threaded our fingers together and slowly wandered down the curving lane. There were no streetlights, and half the houses probably didn’t even have electricity, but the light of the moon was more than enough to light our way. At the end of the lane, warm stones gave way to soft grass as we reached the edge of a wide grassy knoll, the beginning of the steep hill into the valley.
Darkness stretched below us in the valley, but above, billions of stars shone down from a magnificent, cloudless sky, taking my breath away.
For all my travel, I’d never been in a place with so little light pollution. I knew how vast the universe was—how many stars, planets, and other celestial bodies were visible in our night sky—but I’d never seen it so clearly.
The curve of the Milky Way started behind the blue-black outline of the mountains across the valley, then curved above us to disappear somewhere to our backs and to the left. I craned my neck to follow it, my mouth hanging open in awe. Alec wrapped his arms around me from behind, and I rested my head on his chest, just staring up.
I picked out several constellations and planets: Ursa Major, Pegasus, and the brightly glowing, slightly reddish spot that was Mars, some 33.9 million miles away.
If the lifetime of the universe were put into the span of a day, humans would have only existed for the past four seconds. Thinking about that made all the drama and conflict around us feel somehow lighter. When all this was over and no one even remembered our names, the universe would still be shining bright; the Earth would still be here. Life would go on.
The longer I stared, the closer the night sky seemed. Eventually it almost felt as if I were among the stars, as if I could reach out and touch them and they would feel like smooth velvet under my fingers.
Without realizing, I reached a hand out toward the sky. Alec chuckled, his warm chest jostling my back, and I lowered my arm, smiling to myself.
Neither of us had spoken a word. This place was almost magic in its peace.
It was time for me to break the silence.
There was one pressing thing that still mattered, even though we were barely a speck in the dust that was the universe.
I turned in his arms, putting my back to the most amazing view I’d ever seen.
He’d kept a long-sleeved shirt on at all times since we’d arrived in the more remote areas, where tattoos didn’t have positive connotations. But now his ink and scars were on full display—his art and pain worn like armor. I ran my hands over his chest and shoulders, feeling the strong muscle under the soft skin.
The blue in his eyes was almost silvery—reflecting the stars. He smiled at me, no sign of the frowning, brooding, tense asshole I’d first met. This was the real Alec. This was my Alec, my honey-voiced stranger who was a stranger no more.
This was the man I loved.
“I love you, Alec.” I looked right into those mesmerizing eyes as I told him.
He blinked, his eyes widening just a little, and then so