Lara woke up to sunlight stabbing her eyelids and a heavy arm slung across her stomach like it belonged there.
She didn’t move at first. Just lay still, feeling the slow rise and fall of Kai’s chest against her back, the lazy throb between her legs that said last night had been real. No candles. No circle. No bargain ticking down. Just them—sweaty, tangled, and still breathing the same air.
Her hand drifted down. His palm was already there, warm and possessive, cradling the flat plane of her belly like he could feel something no test could confirm yet. She pressed her fingers over his knuckles. He stirred, lips brushing the nape of her neck.
“Morning, little scholar,” he murmured, voice gravel-rough from sleep and growling her name half the night.
She shivered. “You stayed.”
“Promised
