No clock counting down to disaster.
Just Lena.
She stands in the bedroom doorway, moonlight spilling over bare skin, one of my shirts hanging open on her shoulders. The ocean hums outside, steady and endless.
“You coming to bed,” she asks softly, “or are you still pretending you can relax out there?”
I leave the sliding door open.
Out of choice.
“I’m done pretending,” I say.
Her smile is slow. Knowing.
The bedroom door stays wide open.
She wants the world to see us.
I want it to know she’s mine.
I cross the room and pull her into me, my hands sliding beneath cotton and warmth. The kiss isn’trushed—it’s deep, claiming, familiar. The kind built over six months of shared mornings and shared nightmares.
She presses back, fingers fisting in my hair. “You still look at me like I might disappear.”
“Because I almost lost you. God, Lena, I thought I had lost you,” I murmur against her throat. “And because I won’t again.”
She pushes me backward toward the bed, climbing into my lap without hesitation. Strong. Certain. No fear left in her eyes.
This isn’t desperation.
This is devotion.
Her mouth traces my jaw, my collarbone, her hands exploring like she already knows every inch—and still wants more.
The door stays open.
The night air drifts in.
I lay her back slowly, deliberately, letting her feel every second of how wanted she is. How cherished. How permanent.
Lena
His scent surrounded me,and his hands ran down my body.
My blood pounded in my ears, as loud as the waves crashing on the shore. I rose on tiptoe to meet him more than halfway as Ronan bent his head and pressed his warm lips to mine.
His hands ran through my hair, and he crushed his mouth to mine. My body melted against him. Hunger surged within us. When we landed on the bed, he was careful not to crush me under him. He held himself over me.
“No, I want to feel your body against mine,” I whispered. The warmth of his hands on my skin sent sensations straight to my core and made me ache as a slight sound escaped my lips.
“We are going to take our time, sweetheart, so lie back, and let’s enjoy each other.”
All I could feel was his touch. All I knew was the heat and the need that moved through my body. I was speechless, nearly mindless. When Ronan entered me, I thought I would perish lying under him as he made passionate love to me.
Afterward,she curls into my side, skin warm, heartbeat steady against mine.
“This,” she murmurs sleepily, “is what they’ll never take from us.”
