Phoenix:
I woke up naked. Not just undressed—bare, vulnerable, stripped down to the nerve. The sheets tangled around my legs still held the heat of the night before, a deep, scorching memory embedded in every thread. But the space beside me was cold. Empty.
For a moment, I laid still, blinking at the morning light that cut through the edges of the blackout curtains. My pulse was quiet, but my body wasn’t. Every inch of me ached in the best and worst way—muscles sore from where he gripped, lips still tender from the kind of kisses that made your lungs forget how to breathe.
Ryder had been fire last night. Wild, consuming, inevitable. He didn’t just touch me—he claimed me. Like he’d been waiting years for the moment. Like he was done waiting. Like I was his.
And I let him. God, I wanted
