Ariane:
I had grown so used to waking chilled to the bone from the twins before the sun rubbed the sleep from its eyes that I shivered. I woke to find myself nestled in darkness, warmed so thoroughly that the surprise nearly toppled me from the bed. Then his scent hit me like a memory I’d never lived—a thousand lifetimes pressed into a single inhale.
It wasn’t just the scent of a man. It was the scent of everything.
Moonlit frost clung to him, sharp and clean, as if the night had chosen him as its vessel.
Beneath it, something softer curled, crushed violet petals, delicate and aching, like grief wrapped in silk.
I breathed him in again, and it shattered me all over. He was here.
I drew in another breath, dissecting his smell piece by wonderful piece. This time, ancient cedar, the k
