(Author’s POV)
The drive back to the mansion was quiet, but not in a heavy way. It was the kind of silence that thrummed with unspoken emotions, raw, delicate, and heated all at once. Aurora sat beside Ian, her cheeks still flushed from the kiss on the mountain, her heart refusing to calm down no matter how hard she tried. She could feel his gaze flicker to her every now and then, that mischievous spark dimmed into something softer, warmer, deeper.
By the time they arrived, the mansion was cloaked in silence. The grand halls were dark except for the faint glow of a lamp here and there. Everyone had gone to sleep. Aurora and Ian tiptoed up the staircase, their footsteps soft against the carpeted floor, neither saying a word, as though the night itself held its breath, waiting.
They reach
