I couldn't answer. I was gasping, my vision going spotty at the edges, and for one long second neither of us moved at all."Look at me." His voice had changed completely — no roughness left in it, nothing performative, just something close to alarm. He turned me, carefully, onto my side, one hand coming up to my face. "Breathe. In through your nose. Look at me and breathe."I did, shaking, and he stayed like that, still inside me, utterly motionless, his thumb moving once — just once — across my cheekbone to catch a tear I hadn't realized had fallen.He didn't say anything about it. He didn't ask if I was okay in words, didn't apologize, didn't do anything that would have let me file this moment away as proof of something. He just waited, silent, until my breathing evened out, his thumb resting against my cheek like he'd forgotten to move it.Then, the second my breathing steadied, his expression closed back over, fast, like a door shutting."Better?" he asked, flat again, all the ala
Last Updated : 2026-08-16
