Waking came slowly, not all at once, but in soft, drifting fragments that pulled me gently back toward consciousness. As though even my body was reluctant to leave behind whatever quiet, dreamlike place it had settled into. For a moment, I didn’t move, didn’t open my eyes. Because I was aware of something before I was fully awake. Warmth surrounded me, wrapping around me in a way that felt intentional, anchoring me exactly where I was. It took my foggy brain another second to realize why it felt so good.
Him.
The awareness settled in gradually, spreading through me in a slow, deepening recognition. I became aware of the weight of his arm draped securely around my waist. The firm line of his body pressed along mine, and the steady rise and fall of his chest against my back. I could feel the heat of him everywhere, surrounding me, holding me in place as though he had never once considered letting me go.
And then, as the last remnants of sleep began to fall away, something else followed. The distinct, unmistakable awareness that I wasn’t the only one awake. I knew that after I hadinstinctively rolled into him, something he allowed, as it meant I was now facing him.
My lashes fluttered slightly, just enough to let in the faintest sliver of light, and it didn’t take more than that for me to realize that he was already watching me.
Of course he was.
There was something about the way he looked at me, even now, even like this, that made warmth settle deep in my chest. A gaze not with uncertainty or hesitation, just a quiet kind of happiness I hadn’t been expecting. A look that fueled the fragile hope that whatever this was between us hadn’t changed.
Of course, now seeing those stunning blue eyes watching me, made me suddenly very aware of everything else. Like my hair, which I could only assume looked like I had been dragged through several bushes and back. My face, which was likely still flushed and far too revealing after everything that had happened last night. And then, of course, there was the far more horrifying realization…
Morning breath.
Oh Goddess.
A small, internal groan threatened as I resisted the urge to bury my face in the pillow and pretend I had simply ceased to exist. So instead, I closed my eyes and rolled onto my back. And really, after everything that had happened between us, this was what I was worried about? Not the fact that I had quite literally thrown myself into something that was way, way, way over my head. That I was his prisoner in a world it felt like I had no chance of ever understanding as a mortal… but oh no, I was more concerned with whether or not I smelled like toothpaste’s greatest enemy.
Brilliant.
Good to know you have your priorities in order, Eliza. Definitely a palm slap to the forehead moment. And yet, despiteall of that, despite the brief spiral my brain had decided to take me on, there was something else there too. Something quieter. Softer.
Because the things I had expected to feel when I woke up like this… awkwardness, regret, uncertainty…
None of it came.
Instead, there was only this strange, steady calm. A warmth that had nothing to do with the way he was holding me and everything to do with the fact that he was still here. That he hadn’t pulled away. Hadn’t distanced himself. Hadn’t turned this into something cold or complicated or…different.
If anything, the way he held me now felt exactly the same.
Like I belonged there. And that realization alone was enough to ease something in my chest that I hadn’t even realized had been tight.
Still… that didn’t mean I was about to let him get away with staring at me like that.
“You know that’s creepy, right?” I murmured, my voice still thick with sleep as I kept my eyes closed, not quite ready to face him properly just yet.
There was a pause before I felt the subtle shift of him, and then the faint brush of his breath closer to my ear as his quiet amusement followed.
“Demon, remember.”
Of course.
I let out a soft huff of a laugh at that, the sound muffled slightly by the pillow as I resisted the urge to face him once more.
“Is that your excuse for everything?” I asked, my tone still laced with sleep and just enough teasing to take the edge off the fact that my heart was still doing that annoying, fluttering thing.
Another pause, though this one felt different, more measured.
“Depends on the excuse I need.”
That did it.
A small smile tugged at my lips before I could stop it, my head shifting slightly against the pillow as I finally allowed myself to settle just a little more comfortably into the space he had already claimed around me.
“Good answer.”
