Fox met Dav on a Thursday night that smelled like citrus cleaner and expensive perfume.
It was one of those rooftop parties where everyone pretended not to be looking at each other while very obviously looking at each other. The city glittered beneath them, all sharp lines and invitation. Fox stood near the railing in a black dress that fit like it had secrets. She liked being slightly apart from the noise, watching people reveal themselves in pieces.
Dav noticed her because she wasn’t performing.
He’d been laughing too loud at something someone said when he caught sight of her—chin tilted toward the skyline, fingers curled loosely around a glass she hadn’t touched in ten minutes. She looked like she was measuring the world.
He excused himself mid-conversation.
“Planning your escape route?” he asked, stepping up beside her.
Fox didn’t turn immediately. “Always,” she said. Then she looked at him.
It wasn’t fireworks. It was heat. Slow, deliberate heat that started somewhere behind her ribs and spread outward.
Dav grinned like he felt it too. “Should I be worried?”
“Depends,” she replied. “Are you the reason I’d need one?”
He leaned his forearms against the railing, close enough that their shoulders almost brushed. Almost.
“I’d rather be the reason you stay.”
That did it. A grin tugged at her mouth before she could stop it. “Confident.”
“Observant.”
She finally took a sip of her drink, eyes never leaving his. “What did you observe?”
“That you’re pretending not to be bored.”
She barked a soft laugh. “You’re not?”
“I am. But now I’m not.”
There it was again—that heat. Sharp and playful and dangerously mutual.
They talked the way people flirt when they both know it’s flirting. No pretending otherwise. No coyness. Just a current running steadily between them.
He learned she worked in design. She learned he ran his own fitness studio. He told her she had the kind of stare that made a person confess things. She told him he had the kind of smile that suggested trouble.
“Good trouble?” he asked.
“The kind you regret,” she said.
“Regret later or regret forever?”
Fox turned fully toward him now, closing that inch of space between their shoulders. “You ask a lot of questions.”
“You avoid answering.”
She set her empty glass down on the ledge behind her. “Maybe I’m waiting for the right incentive.”
Dav’s eyes dropped to her mouth for half a second too long. “And what would that be?”
She leaned closer. Close enough that her breath brushed his jaw. “Convince me.”
He didn’t hesitate.
His hand came up—not grabbing, not claiming—just resting lightly at her waist. Testing. Asking.
She didn’t pull away.
His thumb shifted, barely brushing the fabric at her hip. “Is this convincing?” he murmured.
Fox swallowed. “It’s… a start.”
He laughed under his breath, the sound low and satisfied. “You like being in control.”
“And you like pretending you are.”
That did something to him. She saw it in the way his jaw tightened.
“Careful,” he said softly.
“Or?”
“Or I’ll show you.”
Fox tilted her head. “Show me.”
The music thumped behind them, but the world had narrowed to the space between their bodies.
Dav’s hand slid from her waist to her lower back, firmer now. Not rough. Just certain. He pulled her flush against him.
Her breath hitched. She hated that it did. Loved that it did.
“You’re not bored anymore,” he said.
“Neither are you.”
His other hand came up to her jaw, fingers brushing just beneath her ear. He didn’t kiss her immediately. He let it build. Let her feel exactly how close he was.
Fox’s hands found his chest, gripping the fabric of his shirt. “You hesitate a lot for someone so confident.”
His mouth hovered over hers. “You talk a lot for someone who wants this.”
Her response was to close the gap.
The kiss wasn’t soft. It wasn’t tentative. It was the kind that says finally.
Heat exploded between them. His grip tightened at her back as her fingers slid into his hair. The city noise faded completely.
She tasted mint and something darker. He tasted like control slipping.
When they pulled apart, it wasn’t far. Just enough to breathe.
“Regret later,” she whispered.
He smiled against her mouth. “Definitely later.”
They didn’t say goodbye to anyone.
The elevator ride down was torture. Mirrors on every wall. His hand at her waist again. Her thigh brushing his. Neither of them speaking because if they did, it would snap.
When the doors opened to the quiet lobby, he leaned down and murmured, “Your place or mine?”
Fox didn’t even pretend to think. “Mine. It’s closer.”
The cab ride was a blur of fingers and restrained grins. His hand rested on her knee, thumb drawing lazy circles that weren’t lazy at all. She shifted closer under the excuse of a turn.
“You’re impatient,” he said.
“You’re slow,” she shot back.
He leaned in, lips brushing her ear. “You won’t think that in ten minutes.”
Her stomach flipped. “Big promises.”
“I always deliver.”
Her apartment was dim when they stumbled inside. She barely got the door shut before he had her against it.
This kiss was different. Hungrier. His hands slid down her sides, mapping her through fabric. She arched into him without thinking.
“Tell me to stop,” he said, voice rougher now.
“Don’t,” she answered instantly.
That was all the permission he needed.
He lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist like she’d been waiting to. He walked them down the hallway without breaking the kiss, hands firm under her thighs.
Fox laughed breathlessly against his mouth. “Show-off.”
“Not yet.”
He set her down at the edge of her bed, standing between her knees. For a second they just looked at each other.
That grin was back on her face. Mischievous. Daring.
“You still think I’m bored?” she asked.
Dav’s eyes darkened. “I think you’re about to scream.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Confident.”
“Observant.”
He kissed her again, slower this time. Deeper. His hands slid up her thighs, pushing the dress higher inch by inch. Not rushing. Savoring.
Fox’s fingers tugged at his shirt, pulling it over his head. She let her gaze drag over him deliberately.
“Like what you see?” he asked.
She bit her lower lip. “I’m deciding.”
He caught that lip between his thumb and forefinger gently. “Don’t play with fire unless you want to burn.”
She leaned forward and kissed his chest, slow and deliberate. “I’m counting on it.”
The rest blurred into heat and laughter and breathless challenges. Teasing touches that made her gasp. Soft curses that made him grin. The kind of tension that snaps in the best possible way.
He wasn’t rough. He was intentional. Every touch deliberate. Every reaction noticed.
She wasn’t passive. She met him with equal hunger. Equal control. Equal want.
At one point she shoved him back onto the mattress and climbed over him, hair falling around her shoulders like a curtain.
“Thought you were showing me,” she teased.
His hands slid up her hips. “I like when you take charge.”
Her smile turned wicked. “Good.”
The night stretched long and delicious. No awkward pauses. No dramatic declarations. Just two people fully aware of how badly they wanted each other—and not pretending otherwise.
Later, tangled in sheets and sweat and satisfied grins, Fox lay on his chest tracing patterns over his skin.
“You grin when you’re pleased,” she said lazily.
“You scream when you are,” he replied.
She smacked his shoulder lightly, laughing. “Shut up.”
He caught her hand and kissed her knuckles. “No regrets?”
She lifted herself up on one elbow and looked down at him.
“Only that we didn’t do this sooner.”
Dav pulled her back down, pressing a kiss to her temple. “We’ve got time.”
Fox smiled against his skin.
The city still glittered outside her windows, but it felt distant now. Unimportant.
She wasn’t at the edge anymore.
And she definitely wasn’t bored.
---
Three years later, Fox was standing in the middle of their kitchen holding a positive pregnancy test and laughing like she’d just been dared to do something reckless.
Dav walked in mid-laugh.
“What did I miss?” he asked, dropping his gym bag by the door.
She turned slowly, holding the test up between two fingers like it was evidence in a trial.
His brain took a second.
Then another.
Then—
“You’re kidding.”
She shook her head.
His face went through every emotion in about five seconds, shock, disbelief, pure boyish excitement, mild panic, and then something steadier.
“Fox.”
It wasn’t a question.
She nodded once.
He crossed the room in three long strides and picked her up off the floor.
“Dav!” she yelped, half-laughing.
“We’re having a baby?” he said into her hair like he needed to hear it out loud.
“We are.”
He set her down gently this time, hands still gripping her waist like she might disappear.
“You okay?”
She studied him. “You?”
He exhaled a shaky laugh. “Terrified. Excited. Slightly nauseous in solidarity.”
She grinned. “You’re dramatic.”
“Shut up. This is big.”
It was big.
They had built a life already, the studio had grown, his fitness business was thriving, their apartment had turned into a home filled with mismatched furniture and framed memories. But this?
This was different.
This wasn’t heat and flirting and tension.
This was forever with fingerprints.
—
Pregnancy suited Fox in ways she hadn’t expected.
She still worked. Still designed. Still challenged Dav over who got control of the thermostat.
But something softened around her edges.
Dav became borderline ridiculous.
He read books. So many books. He learned about trimester nutrition like he was studying for an exam. He talked to her stomach before it even showed.
“Hi, tiny human,” he’d murmur, kneeling in front of her. “I’m your dad. I make good omelets.”
Fox would roll her eyes, but she’d be smiling every time.
“You realize it can’t hear you yet.”
“Confidence,” he’d reply.
“Delusion.”
When she finally started showing, he became protective in the most subtle ways. A hand at her lower back in crowded places. An arm around her waist on stairs. Quiet check-ins.
“You good?”
“Fine.”
“Sure?”
“Dav.”
But she leaned into him every single time.
—
The night their daughter was born, Dav didn’t make jokes.
He held Fox’s hand and didn’t let go once. Not when she squeezed hard enough to bruise. Not when she snapped at him. Not when she went quiet with focus.
“You’ve got this,” he said, over and over. Not loud. Not dramatic. Just steady.
When the cry finally split the air, Fox’s breath broke with it.
Dav looked wrecked.
Completely undone.
They placed the tiny, furious, red-faced human in Fox’s arms.
She stared down at her.
Dav leaned in close, voice cracking just slightly. “She’s loud.”
Fox laughed weakly. “She’s yours.”
He kissed her forehead, then the baby’s head.
“Hi,” he whispered. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
They named her Mira.
—
Sleep disappeared for a while.
Romance looked different.
It looked like Dav walking the floor at 3 a.m. with a screaming newborn while Fox finally slept.
It looked like Fox handing him coffee without a word when he had an early training session.
It looked like kisses stolen over a baby monitor.
One night, when Mira was finally asleep, Fox collapsed onto the couch beside him.
“We used to be fun,” she said tiredly.
Dav glanced at her. “We are fun.”
She gestured vaguely. “We haven’t been out in months.”
He reached over, tugging her into his lap like muscle memory.
“We built a human,” he said. “That’s pretty metal.”
She huffed a laugh.
He brushed hair out of her face, she hadn’t done it in hours.
“You’re still you,” he said quietly. “You’re just… more.”
Her throat tightened.
“You don’t miss before?” she asked softly.
He kissed her slow. Familiar. Certain.
“Before led to this.”
That shut her up.
And later that night, when the house was finally quiet, they remembered they were still them.
Still heat. Still spark.
Just… deeper now.
—
Five years later, the apartment was louder.
Mira had grown into a fierce, opinionated little person with Fox’s stare and Dav’s grin.
And there was a baby boy now too, Leo, permanently sticky and endlessly curious.
The studio had expanded into a larger space. The fitness center had a second location.
Life was full.
Messy.
Chaotic.
Beautiful.
One Saturday morning, Fox stood at the stove flipping pancakes while Leo clung to her leg and Mira argued with Dav about dinosaurs at the table.
“Brachiosaurus is taller!” Mira insisted.
“Tyrannosaurus wins in a fight,” Dav countered.
Fox turned. “Why are we fighting dinosaurs before 9 a.m.?”
“Important household matters,” Dav replied solemnly.
She shook her head, but she was smiling.
He caught her eye across the room.
And just like that. It was there.
That same current from the rooftop years ago.
Different shape. Same heat.
Later, after sticky fingers were washed and cartoons negotiated, the kids finally went down for naps at the same time.
Fox stepped into the living room and found Dav stretched on the couch.
He held out a hand without looking.
She took it automatically.
He pulled her down onto him, just like before.
“Hi,” he murmured.
“Hi.”
They lay there in the quiet.
“You’re staring,” she said softly.
“Observing.”
She smiled. “And?”
“You still look like you’re about to dare someone.”
She leaned down and kissed him slow.
“Maybe I am.”
His hands slid to her hips instinctively. Familiar territory. Familiar heat.
“We have twenty minutes,” he said.
She grinned. “Confident.”
“Efficient.”
She laughed into his mouth, but she didn’t move away.
The spark hadn’t dulled.
It had matured.
It wasn’t reckless anymore.
It was chosen.
And later, when the kids burst into the room far too early from their naps, Fox and Dav pulled apart just in time, breathless and grinning like teenagers who hadn’t quite grown up.
Mira squinted at them suspiciously.
“Why are you smiling like that?”
Fox and Dav exchanged a look.
Dav cleared his throat. “Because we like pancakes.”
Fox elbowed him.
But when she met his eyes again, she saw it.
Not just attraction.
Not just history.
Partnership.
Desire.
Friendship.
All of it tangled together.
She wasn’t at the edge anymore.
She wasn’t daring him to stay.
He already had.
And somehow, after years and children and sleepless nights and loud mornings, their feelings were still burning strong.