I left the door unlocked again.
The house settled into silence just after midnight. My mother’s footsteps had long since faded into the master suite. Water had run and stopped. The hallway outside my room stayed dark and still. I sat on the edge of the bed in nothing but the same oversized shirt, thighs already slick, pulse hammering so hard I could hear it in my ears.
The soft click of the door came at 12:17.
Elias stepped inside and locked it without a word. He was still in the black shirt from dinner, sleeves rolled, the controlled expression he wore all day already cracking at the edges. His eyes dragged over my bare legs, the way the shirt sat high on my thighs, the visible peaks of my n*****s against the thin fabric.
“You waited,” he said quietly.
“You told me to.”
He crossed t
