“He kissed me like I was something holy. Like he’d been starving and I was breath. There was no hunger in it. Just reverence.” Summary: After weeks of silence, Jace finally asks the one thing Ivy never thought she’d let him: “Can I kiss you?” And she says yes. Because everything about the moment feels earned—soft, quiet, safe. Their kiss isn’t explosive—it’s intimate, intentional. It doesn’t fix everything. But it opens a door Ivy thought she’d closed forever. Now, there’s no pretending. No pretending she’s over him. No pretending he doesn’t still wreck her with just a look.