Day twelve dawned gray and damp, the kind of Pacific Northwest morning where the rain seemed to seep into your bones. Amina’s absence had stretched into another full day, her last text still sitting unanswered on Elias’s phone. The house felt like it was holding its breath, every creak of the floorboards echoing like a reminder of the empty room upstairs.
I woke to Elias’s familiar warmth wrapped around me like a shield. His arm was locked across my waist, leg draped over mine, and his morning hardness pressed hot and insistent against my lower back. Before I could even murmur good morning, his hand slid between my thighs, fingers gliding through the slick remnants of last night.
“Need you,” he breathed against my neck, voice rough with sleep and something deeper. He lifted my leg and pu
