Day fifteen felt different — lighter, yet still fragile, like the first c***k of sunlight after weeks of storm clouds. Amina’s promise to return “in a couple of days” hung in the air like a tentative truce. The mist had burned off by mid-morning, leaving Willow Creek sparkling under a rare patch of blue sky that made the maple trees along the lane glow with fresh green.
I woke curled against Elias’s chest, his heartbeat steady beneath my ear. His arms were locked around me in that now-constant clingy hold, one hand splayed possessively across my lower back, the other resting between my thighs. He was already awake, fingers gently stroking through the slick warmth he’d left inside me the night before.
“Morning, baby,” he murmured, voice low and rough with need. He rolled me onto my back a
