The penthouse smelled different that morning.
I caught it halfway across the living room, s*x layered over sandalwood, something foreign threaded through the familiar. My steps slowed. I had expected to find him asleep where I left him. Exhausted from overworking but he wasn’t there.
The bedroom door stood open at the end of the hall, a rectangle of pale light I had never crossed.
Julian's rule had been absolute from day one. That room was his. I slept where he pointed, knelt where he commanded, and never once questioned the boundary.
This morning I didn't need to.
I reached the doorway and stopped breathing.
Julian lay on his back in the center of the enormous bed. Sheets pooled around his waist, leaving his chest bare.
And curled into him, head pillowed on Julian's sternum, was Ma
