Chapter 20: The Message

“Don’t answer it,” Arwen whispered again, her fingers tightening on his shoulders.

The phone buzzed a third time.

Caelum reached back without looking and grabbed the phone. He silenced it with one quick motion before tossing it somewhere across the room. They didn't even notice it clatter on the floor.

“There,” he said, his hands coming back to frame her face. “Nothing else matters right now except this.”

“Caelum...”

“Do you want me to stop?” His thumb traced her bottom lip, his eyes searching hers. “Because if you do, tell me now before I lose what’s left of my control.”

She should stop this.

But she’d spent weeks being careful, and pretending.

“Don’t stop,” she breathed. Something fierce and possessive flashed across his face.

He kissed her again, slower this time but not any less intense, and when he lifted her she wrapped her legs around his waist instinctively. He carried her the few steps to his bed and laid her down on sheets that smelled just like him, and suddenly everything felt really real.

“Last chance,” he said, bracing himself above her. “Tell me to stop and I will. I’ll sleep in the other room and we’ll pretend this never happened.”

“I don’t want to pretend anymore.” She reached up and pulled him down to her. “I want this... I want you.”

What happened next was nothing like Arwen had imagined.

She’d expected it to be quick, maybe awkward.

Instead Caelum touched her like she was something precious, kissed every inch of her exposed skin, whispered her real name against her throat in a voice rough with want.

“Arwen,” he said as he slid the cotton nightgown off her shoulders. “Say it again. Say you want this.”

“Caelum, I really want you, please.” Her voice was rough with desire.

“God, the way you say my name.” His mouth was on her collarbone, her shoulder, the curve of her breast. “Do you know how long I’ve wanted this? How many nights I’ve laid in this bed thinking about you on the other side of that door?”

“Tell me.” She arched into his touch. “I want to know.”

“Since the wedding.” His hands were everywhere. “Since you flinched away from me in that hallway and I realized you were terrified and trying so hard to hide it. I wanted to know who you really were under all that fear.”

“And now?”

“Now I know you’re brave and talented and so much stronger than you give yourself credit for.” He kissed her deeply.

“Caelum...”

“Now I know you take your tea with honey and lemon, and you prefer the window seat in the car, and you look at art like other people look at scripture.” His voice was wrecked. “And I want to know everything else. Every other detail you’ve been hiding.”

She pulled him down to her, tired of words and needing action instead. When they finally made love it felt like something was breaking open inside her chest, something that had been locked away for too long finally being set free.

They moved together in the dim light of his bedroom, and Arwen stopped thinking about consequences and just let herself feel.

Feel his hands and tongue all over her body and his breath against her neck.

 The first time she ever felt real in her life.

Afterward they lay tangled together in his sheets, both breathing hard, and Arwen felt tears sliding down her temples without knowing exactly why she was crying.

“Hey.” Caelum propped himself up on one elbow, wiping at her face gently with his fingers. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”

“No. God, no.” She laughed through the tears. “I don’t even know why I’m crying.”

“Talk to me.”

“I just... I didn’t know it could be like that.” She looked at him, this man who’d somehow become everything. “I didn’t know I could feel this much.”

Something softened in his expression. He kissed her forehead, her cheeks, the tip of her nose.

“Neither did I,” he admitted quietly. “I thought I knew what I wanted from this marriage. Control, stability, a partner who understood the rules. But you...” He stopped, searching for words. “You make me want things I didn’t think I was capable of wanting.”

“Like what?”

He pulled her closer. “Like love, maybe. Real love, not the kind my parents had.”

Her breath caught. “Caelum...”

“I’m not asking you to say it back.” He pulled  her closer to his chest. “I know it’s too soon, I know we’ve barely started figuring out what this is. I just needed you to know that this isn’t just physical for me.”

Arwen wanted to tell him she loved him, but she was terrified of making this too real too fast.

So instead she kissed him, slow and deep.

They made love again, slower this time. They finally fell asleep with their limbs tangled together and her head on his chest.

That was the best and most peaceful sleep she’d probably ever had.

Arwen woke hours later to find him still sleeping, his face peaceful in a way she had never seen before. The severe businessman who ran an empire was gone, replaced by someone younger, softer, and vulnerable.

She traced the line of his jaw carefully, trying not to wake him, memorizing this moment.

This was real. This was hers.

Movement caught her eye and she looked over at the nightstand where Caelum’s phone was lighting up with a notification.

She shouldn’t look. It was private.

But the screen was bright in the dark room and she could see the preview without meaning to.

A message from UNKNOWN

Her heart stopped.

The message preview showed beneath the sender.

Just four words.

But they pierced through her heart:

Do not trust her. ~ I.

Isolde.

Arwen’s whole body went cold despite the warmth of Caelum beside her.

Her sister was sending messages, trying to destroy this before it could even become something real.

She stared at the phone glowing in the darkness, and felt everything that had just happened between them twist into something breakable.

Did he already know? Had he seen other messages? Was this whole night just him testing her, seeing if she’d confess before he confronted her with proof?

Or was this the first message, and in the morning everything would change when he reads it?

Caelum stirred beside her, his arm tightening around her waist in his sleep, and Arwen closed her eyes against the burning threat of tears.

Just when she felt she’d finally found something real.

Isolde was going to take it away.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​