This time, he doesn’t thrust.With my backside flush against his pelvis and his arm curled around my waist, he falls asleep inside me.
Another first.
I’ve never done the post-coital cuddling thing, let alone fallen asleep with a man inside me.I never knew it could be like this.
Safe.Held.Claimed.This is what love feels like.
My eyes drift shut, and I’m out within seconds.
When I wake again, the room is dark and quiet except for the soft rush of the ocean outside.The balcony curtains billow, letting a stray draft brush my bare legs.
Wolf’s no longer pressed against my back.
Beside me, he sprawls face down, cheek smashed into the pillow, the sheets tangled low around his hips, exposing the long lines of his back and cords of muscle down his sides.
My eyes adjust slowly, shapes sharpening in the blue-gray glow, as my senses come online.
That’s when I feel it, something hard and round tucked into the center of my curled hand.
I blink, confused, and open my palm.
A rock.Small and smooth like so many of the stones scattering the shoreline.
I squint, rolling it with my thumb, turning it over.
There’s writing on it.Black sharpie.A single word.
My heart pounds as I tilt it toward the weak light.It takes a second, but the letters resolve.
Come
My eyes snap fully open, and adrenaline pours through me so fast I sit up on instinct, twisting toward the balcony door.
It stands open, just like I left it, the curtains swaying lazily in the warm breeze.
Nothing looks disturbed.
Heart racing, I scan the room, the corners, the shadows, the closet door cracked an inch.
Nothing.
No Jag.
No movement except the slow rise and fall of Wolf’s back as he breathes, dead asleep.
If Jag is here… If Jag came into this room while we slept…
A cold, violent protectiveness locks around my ribs, and I roll toward Wolf, setting two fingers on his neck, feeling the deep, steady rhythm of his pulse.
Alive.Safe.Unaware.
If Jag came with the intent to kill, Wolf would already be dead.
I slide out of the bed, feet hitting the floor as quietly as I can manage, the rock still clutched in my hand.Then something catches my eye.A small shape on the floor, a few feet from the bed.
Another rock.
Creeping toward it, I snatch it up and spot a third one in the doorway leading to the hall.
