That night, he simply told her to stay. She did. The quiet command lingered in the air, settling around them like a reminder of everything that had already broken and everything that was about to shatter. Despite the raw devastation of the confrontation, the exhaustion of the day, and the solemn finality of their new countdown, he still reached for her. He pulled her onto the bed, and they had s*x. It was rougher than usual, driven by a tense, desperate energy that mirrored the chaos they had just endured, the kind of energy that rises when two people know time is closing in on them.
Jessica clung to him, not with the obedience of the contract, but with the quiet, devastating realization that she was savoring this moment. She savored the feel of his weight, the heat of his skin, the deman
