Sunlight dripped through the thin slats of Sophia’s blinds, pooling in warm stripes over tangled sheets and bare limbs. For a moment, she stayed perfectly still, eyes fluttering open to the unfamiliar weight draped across her waist.
Nate Sterling — all muscle and sleep-rough breathing — lay half on her side, his face buried where her shoulder met her neck.
God. Her apartment. Her bed. And him.
She should’ve felt suffocated. Instead, her chest ached in a way that made her throat tight.
Slowly, she turned her head, careful not to wake him. Up close, the sharp lines of his face looked boyish in sleep. The constant tension he carried in his jaw was gone, softened by the vulnerability of being somewhere that wasn’t marble floors and glass walls — but her small, sunlit bedroom.
A reckless t
