His breathing deepens, eyelids growing heavier with each blink, but he fights it, watching me as if afraid I’ll disappear.
“You’re safe here,” I promise. “Get some rest.”
His eyes stay fixed on me as sleep claims him, the tight lines of pain around his mouth softening. The scent of his fear recedes, replaced by the cleaner notes of exhaustion and tentative contentment.
Slowly, I rise from the bed and step back into the hallway, leaving the door cracked in case Leif wakes confused.
I pause, listening to the quiet wheeze of his sleeping, and comfort washes over me at having him under my roof again, within reach if needed.
But not mine.
Steps heavy, I walk out to the living room to find Jared sitting on the couch, waiting for me. The table has been cleared, and the quiet swoosh of the dishwasher drifts from the kitchen.
He rises as I approach. “Everything okay?”
“He’s asleep,” I tell him, crossing to lean into him. “Thank you for stopping me earlier.”
His arms come around me, and a purr rises from his chest. “While you’d be hot in a prison uniform, I’d rather keep that to roleplay night.”
I chuff out a laugh. “Since when do we have roleplay night?”
“I’m keeping it in my back pocket for when I start to bore you.”
I turn my head and nip his neck. “Planning to bore me anytime soon?”
His purr rises in volume. “Nope.”
He draws back, the warmth of his body leaving a ghost in its wake as his hands rise to cup my cheeks with a tenderness that almost undoes me. He anchors me with the heel of his palm beneath my ear, his thumb skating along my cheekbone before settling beside my mouth.
The rest of the world falls away as he tilts my chin, and for the space of a drawn breath, I let myself exist nowhere but here, in the magnetic pull of my bondmate.
Then his mouth covers mine, and the world falls away. Heat radiates outward as our tongues curl together. His pheromones rise, warm salt air surrounding me, along with the faint undertone of the aftershave he used this morning, the combination grounding and dizzying all at once.
He pulls me closer, thumbs tracing the hinge of my jaw, and I melt, my hands curling into the fabric at his waist. His heartbeat thrums beneath my palm, and my breathing slows to match his, letting the rhythm soothe my ragged edges.
Instinctively, my body knows I’m safe with him, and I relax within his arms. Jared has never hurt me, never betrayed me. From the very start, he’s shown me over and over again that I can trust him.
The kiss deepens as he senses me opening to it.
There’s a question in the way he moves.Are you okay? Can I carry some of the weight for you tonight?
I answer every time with my mouth, with the way my arms tighten around him, with the faint, involuntary noise I don’t quite stifle when he nips at my lower lip.
He’s careful not to rush, the way he maps the contours of my face with delicate touches, showing me how no part of me is too much for him, no wound too raw, no edge too sharp. It’s a kind of safety I never learned to crave until I met him, and the realization brings a sting behind my closed eyelids.
When we separate, he rests his forehead on mine, breath warm on the skin between my eyebrows. In the silence that follows, the only sound is the rain, steady on the roof, and the faintest echo of Leif’s snores from down the hall.
I don’t want to move, don’t want to let the night slide back into the uncertainty waiting outside this fragile, stitched-together moment.
But Jared, ever perceptive, picks up on the tension lingering in my body and the way my pulse beats a little too fast beneath his thumb. “You’re worried.”
“What if something goes wrong?” I ask, both of us turning toward the hallway where Leif sleeps. “What if Carson hurts him again?”
“He miscalculated this time.” Jared’s jaw hardens. “He thought hurting Leif would isolate him further.”
“Instead, it drove him to us.” Resolve settles over me. “And with Grady’s help, we’re going to destroy him.”
Jared’s purr returns. “I like this side of you. Our pack protector.”