I Haven't Felt Like You Like This

***Ares*** Her hair, pale gold and sleep-tousled, is fanned out across the pillow, one slender arm flung toward where I had lain not long ago. Her mouth is parted in a way that makes me want to lean down and steal another kiss—several, in fact. Her body ought to still be curled around mine, too. After Atticus had gone, I stayed out on the balcony a little longer. The sun had risen fully, climbing higher in the sky, its light spilling more boldly across the stone floor, brushing against my skin like it meant something. And maybe it did. I couldn’t help but wonder whether my body was responding to it—truly responding. Not just the warmth of it, but something deeper. Something waking. It felt different, that much I was sure of. Several things had shifted in me since tasting Ophelia’s b