The house was quiet after Amina went to bed. The kind of quiet that pressed against the skin, heavy with everything unsaid during the day. Elias and I moved through the familiar motions of closing up — locking the front door, turning off the porch lights, checking that Lila’s monitor was on in the nursery. But there was a current running beneath it all tonight, something sharper and more urgent than the usual exhaustion after a long visit.
When we finally stepped into our bedroom and closed the door behind us, Elias didn’t speak. He simply turned me against the wall, one large hand sliding up to cup the back of my neck as his mouth found mine. The kiss was deep from the start, slow and claiming, like he had been holding himself back all day and could no longer.
His other hand moved down
