Chapter Twenty Three

Pale sunlight filtered through the curtains, casting a soft glow across the sheets tangled around their bodies. Dakota stirred slowly, her limbs heavy and sore in the best way. The ache between her thighs was a quiet, intimate reminder of what had happened. Of how he’d made her feel—opened her up and filled her until she forgot where she ended and he began.

And then she felt his gaze. Warm. Watchful.

She turned her head slightly and found Elias propped on one elbow, watching her with something unreadable in his eyes. He didn’t speak right away. Just studied her, like he was still trying to figure out if the night had been real.

“Morning,” he said, voice low and scratchy with sleep.

His dark hair looked disheveled and ran through but in a way that still made him look sexy. Her mind flashed to how she had run her hands through it last night, tugging and pulling with wild abandon. She had practically bared herself to him, begging him to take her.

He's your husband, though. She re