I could get used to this. – Elias
Liana
I woke up on his chest, our legs tangled under the sheets.
Sunlight filtered through the curtains, soft and gold and warm. His skin was hot beneath my cheek, steady breaths rising and falling like a lullaby I didn’t want to wake from.
I didn’t move. Didn’t want to break it.
He was still asleep. messy hair, lips slightly parted, lashes too long for someone who could knock out a grown man in three seconds.
I smiled. Quiet, full, helpless.
What the hell did I do to deserve this?
To deserve him?
I reached up and kissed his cheek.
He blinked.
Then groaned. “You woke me just to kiss me?”
“You’re not complaining.”
“Damn right I’m not.”
He pulled me tighter, and I squeaked, laughing into his neck. His stubble scratched my cheek. He smelled like soap and sleep and something I wanted to get addicted to.
Elias
She tried to wiggle away. “I need breakfast.”
“You move, and I’ll bite.”
“Elias—”
“I’m serious. One more inch, and you’re staying naked and hungry.”
She flushed, face half-buried in my chest. “I can’t move anyway. Everything hurts.”
I grinned. “Then I’m definitely calling room service.”
I reached for the phone. “What do you want? Eggs? Pancakes? Ten more hours of sleep?”
She mumbled into my collarbone. “A new body.”
“Not happening,” I said. “I’m attached to this one.”
While we waited for the room service, I leaned on the doorway, watching her open the fridge with sleepy fingers, hair a mess, collar slipping off one shoulder.
I said, “You look like someone’s wife doing that.”
She blinked at me. “What?”
“Just… saying.”
She rolled her eyes, but her cheeks turned pink.
We ate side by side, forks clinking gently. She always cut her food into tiny bites like she was trying to make it last longer.
She caught me staring. “What?”
“Nothing.”
Liar.
Because all I could think about was—
If she were my wife…
She wouldn’t have to worry about being left in the dark again. Wouldn’t be just a girlfriend no one could protect. Wouldn’t spend three weeks wondering if I was alive.
She’d have rights. She’d be mine—in name, in law, in every goddamn way that mattered.
I never wanted that before. Never even considered it.
But watching her now…
I wanted it more than I’d ever wanted anything.
Liana
After we finished eating, I felt sleepy again.
I crawled back onto his lap, curling into his chest like I belonged there. Because I did.
“This trip is perfect,” I whispered. “I wish we could just stay here forever.”
He kissed the top of my head.
“Then maybe,” he said quietly, “we should start building something that lasts longer than a weekend.”
