Bright, golden embers filtered through her windows, enveloping her in a cocoon of warmth. She stayed in bed, her eyelashes fluttering against her cheeks like butterfly wings while she pretended to sleep. She counted his breaths. Beneath her palm, she felt his heartbeat. Steady as a drum, it lulled chaos to complicity.
He pressed his lips to her temple, his voice laced with fatigue. "I have to go."
"Stay." If she begged, maybe he would.
"I can't." He shifted beneath the covers, his arms wrapping securely around her torso, pulling her close. He nestled his face into her hair, sighing deeply. "There are rules."
She felt his nakedness press against her and knew he was reluctant to leave. "Stay." She relished in his heat, couldn't imagine her life without it. To wake up without him would feel so cold.
"Is that the only word you know?" His voice traveled the length of her spine, gave her chills that frightened and excited her. "Stay?"
She twisted herself around and pressed her breast against him. "Please." She ran her fingertips through the soft hairs of his chest. When she was with him, entwined with him, words often evaded her.
"Then say it." He tugged on her hair, so she would look at him. His free hand took her chin and held it firmly, his thumb grazing her bottom lip. "Say the words."
She knew what he wanted to hear, but certain truths could never be said aloud, so she pulled away from him and hid her face from view. "Rules."
"Now you remember." His hands crept along her back, as he traced each of her scars, almost as if to erase them. "People who break rules here are always punished."
There'd be consequences for both of them.
Because she loved him.
And he loved her.
But they'd yet to hear the other one say it.