My arm slid around her like it had a mind of its own.
She made this soft, sleepy noise — almost a purr — and I swear to god it cracked something wide open in my chest. “You comfortable?” I whispered.
She nodded against the pillow. “You’re warm.”
“Good,” I said, even as my voice caught. “I want you warm.”
Silence settled around us. Steady, gentle. Nothing like the chaos we’d left behind.
“Ansel?” she mumbled, already halfway gone.
“Yeah?”
A pause. A breath. Amaybe.
But then, just… “Thank you.”
I pressed a kiss to the back of her head, to the messy curls spilling over her neck. I didn’t ask ‘for what’, because I wasn’t sure she’d be able to answer. Maybe she didn’t know. Maybe it didn’t matter.
She was here. In my arms. Letting herself be held.
And I would’ve stayed there forever if she asked.
Her breathing slowed within minutes, the gentle rise and fall of her chest steady underneath my arm. And while my heart ached at the closeness —
It wasn’t the only part of me.
I felt like I was taking advantage of the situation, trying to send my brainanywherebut where it was… focused on the swell of her ass pressed against my hardening dick.
The smooth skin of her thighs pressed against my legs.
Fuck.
Instead of counting sheep, I counted naked Kelloggs. Praying that his ugly mug could be enough to keep my chub away as I held her against me.
Once I finally drifted off… the night was quick.
Too fast.
I wanted to stay here in this cramped bed with Juniper curled around me foreternity.
When my eyes finally tore open, the little not-office was glowing. Not with anything dramatic — not some divine revelation, nota miracle. Just the slow, golden kind of light that came through the old curtains. It kind of felt like warmth and safety and maybe even… grace.
Juniper was still asleep.
Sort of.
She’d shifted sometime in the night — no longer curled up on her side, butall over me. Her head tucked beneath my chin, lips parted where they pressed to my collarbone. One leg thrown across my hips. One arm across my chest. And her hair — God, her hair waseverywhere.
It was in my mouth. It was under my arm. It was across both our faces like the world’s softest net.
I didn’t care.
I couldn’t breathe too hard. Couldn’t move. Didn’t want to wake her. Because it was so rare, this version of her. The one with no armor. No sharp tongue. No walls pulled tight around her ribs like a cage.
Just her.
Soft.
