Love Making After Returning

The room was hushed, save for the uneven breaths they shared, their lips brushing in soft, lingering kisses that seemed to stretch time itself.

Cassie’s fingers skimmed up the back of Nikolai’s neck, threading into his dark hair, tugging him closer as if she couldn’t bear a single inch of space between them.

For months after her return, their marriage had been a fragile balance... bound by circumstances, shadowed by pain, guarded by walls neither dared to break. Yet now, in this fragile, beautiful moment, those walls crumbled piece by piece.

Nikolai kissed her again, slower this time, savoring, tasting, memorizing. His hand cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking her skin as though she were porcelain, though the heat in his body raged far from gentle.

“Cassie…” He whispered her name like a vow, like a man standing on the edge of something terrifying and magnificent. His forehead pressed against hers, his breath shaky. “Are you sure? I don’t want to take advantage of your--”

She sil