Bonus Chapter 9 – Reverent Rediscovery (Later Years, Quiet Bedroom Night)Eli POVThe bedroom smelled like cedar from the old dresser we’d refinished ourselves, the faint vanilla of the candle Lila had sent for our last anniversary (still burning low on the nightstand), and the warm, lived-in scent of us skin, sheets, years of shared breath.Fairy lights glowed along the headboard golden strands we’d replaced so many times they were practically part of the house now. They cast soft halos across the rumpled white sheets, across Dante’s bare chest, across the silver that had taken over his hair completely and the deeper lines carved around his eyes from decades of laughing at my terrible puns, squinting at playbooks in dim stadium lighting, and looking at me like I was still the most dangerous, most beautiful thing he’d ever let into his life.He lay on his back, one arm bent behind his head, the other resting on my hip as I straddled him knees bracketing his waist, palms braced on his
Last Updated : 2026-02-23 Read more