He bent his head, brushing his lips across her forehead in the lightest of kisses. “You’re everything,” he murmured, his voice rough in a way that told her he meant it down to the bone.
His hands moved slowly, reverently, tracing the curve of her shoulder, the line of her arm, memorizing her shape as if afraid the memory might fade. She closed her eyes, feeling the steady heat of him seep into her skin with every touch.
When his lips found hers, it was unhurried — not the fierce, consuming heat of battle’s end, but something gentler, like the first embers of a fire catching in the hearth. He kissed her as though the entire world had slowed for them alone.
She sighed into him, her fingers sliding into his hair, and he deepened the kiss just enough to make her heart stutter. When he pulle
