جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 127

DORIAN’s POVThe hospital doors slid shut behind us and I stopped walking.Just for a second. Just to feel it.The sun was out. The air was cool. And somewhere inside that building was a date written on a file with my name on it that said I had a real chance at getting my life back, fully, without the medication schedules and the warning signs and the constant awareness that my body was working against me.Fifth of March, 2026.I exhaled slowly.Caspian’s hand found mine.I looked at him beside me on the pavement. He was already looking at me, the way he did when he thought I wasn’t paying attention, with that expression he would never admit to wearing.“Stop looking at me like that,” I said.“Like what?”“Like I’m something fragile.”“I’m not,” he said. “I’m looking at you like you’re mine.”I opened my mouth.Nothing came out.He almost smiled. “Car.”We entered the car and he drove.Caspian was behind the wheel and there was something different about him when he drove himself. More

The fifth of March arrived the way important days always do quietly without ceremony. Just another morning that happened to be carrying everything.The house was up before the sun.Nobody had planned it that way. It simply happened. One by one, lights came on in different rooms until the whole house was awake and pretending it had been doing something other than lying in the dark waiting for the clock to move.Alexandra was in the kitchen first. She cooked breakfast the way she always did, with full commitment, as though the day required it. Eggs. Toast. Fruit cut into pieces nobody had asked for. She moved through the kitchen without her usual commentary and that silence said more than anything she could have put into words.Dorian came downstairs dressed and calm.That was the thing that got everyone. The calm.He wasn’t performing it. He wasn’t holding himself together in the visible way of someone fighting to stay composed. He was simply calm, the way a person is calm when they ha

Maxwell was stabilised within the hour. The doctors worked quickly and the news that followed was better than anyone had dared to hope for in those first panicked minutes on the hospital floor. A cardiac episode. Serious but manageable. With the right care and the right monitoring, he would recover.He was discharged two days later with a strict care plan, a list of medications, and a nurse named Patricia assigned to oversee his recovery at home.Since returning to their own place was not an option during recovery, Maxwell and Mary moved into Caspian’s house. Patricia moved with them. She was professional and efficient and spoke in the measured tones of someone who had done this many times and taken it seriously every single time. The household adjusted around her presence without much friction.Life settled into a new rhythm.Dorian was still recovering himself, moving carefully, sleeping more than he was used to and pretending he wasn’t. He spent most of his days on the couch with a

DORIAN’s POV The bedroom door clicked shut behind us, sealing out the quiet hum of the house. Caspian’s hand was still in mine, warm and firm, pulling me toward the bed with that purposeful stride that always sent a thrill through me. His eyes locked on mine, dark with intent, and I felt the air thicken, charged with the unspoken promise of what was coming. He didn’t waste time. As soon as my back hit the mattress, he was over me, his body caging mine in the best way. His mouth crashed down on my lips, hungry and demanding, tongue delving deep as if he couldn’t get enough. I kissed him back just as fiercely, my hands fisting in his shirt, yanking it up and over his head to expose the hard planes of his chest. God, he was gorgeous—muscles taut under smooth skin, every inch of him radiating heat that seeped into me. “Dorian,” he growled against my neck, his teeth nipping at the sensitive spot just below my ear. A shiver raced down my spine, straight to my cock, which was alrea