EMILY
I was still trembling.
Every nerve in my body buzzed with the aftershock of what he’d just done to me… of what we’d just been. And yet… the second he pulled back, I felt it.
The shift, it was subtle, but cold. Like a draft sneaking in through a door you hadn’t realized was cracked open.
I watched him lick his lips, slow and almost reverent, and something inside me tightened. He looked at me like I was a secret he wanted to keep. Then he looked away, like he wasn’t sure he had the right to.
And maybe he didn’t.
I reached for his belt, fingers brushing against the leather, still high on the heat between us, still needing to feel close to him in every way but he stopped me.
His hand was gentle, but the message landed hard.
“No?” I asked, voice smaller than I intended.
He brushe
