Chapter Text
The next morning, the lingering tension from their nighttime confrontation hung heavily in the air. Mia remained quiet throughout breakfast, offering polite responses whenever she was addressed directly but otherwise retreating into a stubborn silence. When the front gate finally opened, both Dr. Goodwin and his wife, Grace, arrived together to retrieve the girls. They thanked the couple profusely for the emergency childcare, and Grace made them both promise to accept a proper gesture of gratitude in the coming week.
Before departing, Jasmine and Rachael eagerly threw their small arms around both Mia and Noah.
The moment the front doors clicked shut, the heavy silence returned, the air charged. Mia was still deeply upset about their conversation from the night before. It was infuriating how Noah operated—he would concede to her face, promising to grant her the time and space she desperately required, only to immediately try to reclaim what he had just surrendered. But she was refusing to budge on this one. He had explicitly stated she could have time, and by gods, she was going to take every second of it. She possessed so little control over her own life in this estate; she would fiercely guard whatever scrap of autonomy she could manage to steal.
“Mia. I know you are still harboring resentment from last night. Talk to me,” Noah needled, his smooth cadence cutting through the quiet house as he followed her into the grand room, trying to force her to engage.
Mia kept her arms tightly crossed over her chest, a completely closed-off, rigid display of pure irritation. To make matters worse, her cramps were significantly more intense and uncomfortable today, leaving her physically exhausted. Being forced to navigate Noah's presence when he was actively being a demanding ass was absolutely not at the top of her priority list.
“I’m perfectly fine. I just want to go sit outside for a while,” she lied, her tone clipped.
Noah’s storm-blue eyes narrowed slightly; he didn’t believe the deception for a single second, but he made the choice not to push her to the breaking point just yet. “Alright. Let’s go.”
“Don’t you have work to do today?” she snapped, turning her head to glare at him.
Yes, he did—far too much of it, honestly, between the ongoing border crisis, the theft of his technology, and Ironwood’s demands, he was swamped. “I do,” he admitted smoothly, closing the distance between them. “But I want to spend time with you, baby. I didn’t get to see you at all yesterday, and I have no intention of ignoring you today.”
“Fine,” she huffed, letting out a sharp, frustrated breath before turning on her heel.
She retreated to the master suite just long enough to change into a swimsuit before hurrying out the back glass doors to lie by the pristine edge of the infinity pool. But her attempt at isolation was short-lived. Noah was right behind her, his button-down shirt already discarded, leaving his bare chest exposed to the morning sun.
Despite the thick layers of resentment clogging her throat, Mia couldn’t stop her eyes from tracking his movements, an involuntary pang of admiration hitting her chest. He possessed beautiful, sun-kissed golden skin, perfectly chiseled hard muscles, and that devastatingly gorgeous face. Okay, fine. She could at least be honest enough with her own psyche to admit that she did want him physically at this point. There was no use in lying to herself about the basic chemistry of her body. Besides, she reasoned, if she chose to find a male form attractive, she had every right to do so. She could easily view his flawless physical canvas, completely separate from the rotten, manipulative personality trapped inside it.
Noah cocked his head at her, a slow, knowing smirk tugging at the corner of his lips as he caught her tracking the lines of his body. “Enjoying the view, sweetheart?”
“Yeah, I am, actually,” she shot back, her tone dripping with a deliberate, sharp snark.
Noah froze slightly, momentarily taken aback by the uncharacteristic, candid admission. His smirk faltered into an expression of genuine intrigue. “Really? Are you finally done playing this tedious little game where you pretend you don't love me?”
Mia didn't shrink under his gaze. Instead, she offered him a slow, teasing smirk of her own before melting it into a practiced, exaggerated pout. “Would you rub my feet? They are achy from chasing those girls around yesterday.”
Noah’s brows knitted, his storm-blue eyes blinking slowly as if trying to process a glitch in the matrix. It felt as though a completely strange, entirely foreign entity had suddenly hijacked Mia’s body—one that was actively, willingly soliciting his touch.
“Sure, baby,” he murmured, his voice dropping into a low register as he stepped toward the edge of her lounge chair, preparing to sit at the foot of it.
But before he could lower his weight, Mia lifted her leg with fluid grace, pressing the sole of her bare foot firmly against the hard slope of his shoulder, halting him in his tracks.
“No,” she commanded, her voice dropping into a remarkably steady, dominant register that brokered no argument. “Get down on your knees.”
Noah threw her a strange, intensely calculating look, his dark eyes searching hers for the trap. Yet, the sheer novelty of her taking charge intoxicated him enough to override his dominant instinct. He sank downward, letting his bare knees settle directly onto the rough, sun-heated concrete. The textured stone dug into his skin, but he completely ignored the stinging friction as his large, warm hands wrapped around her ankle, his thumbs digging into the arch of her foot to massage away the tension.
Mia let her eyelids flutter shut, a soft sigh escaping her lips as she thoroughly enjoyed the deep, grounding sensation of his touch.
Maybe Dr. Goodwin was right, she reasoned in the quiet, dark sanctuary of her mind, a cold resolve hardening behind her ribs. If I am destined to be permanently stuck here in this gilded cage with a monster... then I might as well take advantage of his obsession. Demand everything I want, and make him give it to me.
His hand drifted up her thigh, the touch possessive and heavy, but the moment his fingers brushed higher, she snapped her eyes open and sharply slapped his hand away.
“I told you, I’m still hurting,” she hissed, her voice cutting through the humid air. Realizing she had let the bite show too clearly, she immediately forced her features to soften, melting her glare into a sweet pout. “Please, baby.”
Mia laid the compliance on thick, letting her voice drop into a rare, delicate cadence. Noah, completely entranced by this intoxicating, receptive version of her, actually froze in place, his control overriding his instinct.
“Do you want me to fetch some more pain medication?” he asked, his dark eyes searching hers.
“Yes, and a cocktail, please. Something tropical and strong.”
Noah tensed instantly at the request, his thumbs stalling against her skin. Alcohol was completely out of the question; given that she would be pregnant soon and the chemical balance he was trying to maintain, he couldn't afford to let her indulge. But as he sat there on his knees, a cold thread of panic hit his mind. How was he supposed to dance around this request without raising her suspicions? Not to mention, if he strictly forbade her from drinking at their impending wedding ceremony in front of their guests, it would look incredibly suspicious.
“Mia, it’s ten o’clock in the morning,” he reasoned, keeping his voice carefully smooth. “Let us save the drinking for later this evening.”
“We are on island time, Noah. Time is an arbitrary construct out here,” she countered with a sharp, mocking little smile. “So let’s have a drink.”
“Mia. No. You can have a glass of wine later tonight,” he delivered, his tone dropping into a flat register that signaled finality.
She rolled her eyes, her lips twisting into a dramatic stink-face as she crossed her arms. “Fine. I’m bored anyway.”
Noah let out a long exhale, the friction of her mood starting to irritate his pristine patience. He glanced out over the private docks, making a quick decision. “Well... would you care to go out on the jet skis?”
It was the first time he had actively offered to do anything remotely recreational or fun with her since the day he had taken her out on the four-wheelers. Mia couldn’t contain the sudden, brilliant grin that broke across her face.
“Really?” she asked, her eyes brightening. “Can I actually ride my own?”
Noah’s expression shifted, a knowing, dangerous spark dancing in his blue-grey eyes. “And you promise you aren’t going to immediately attempt to ride off into the horizon?”
Mia rolled her eyes dramatically. As if I even could, she thought bitterly. The damn thing would run out of fuel before I even reach land.
“As profoundly tempting as that sounds,” she shot back, her voice dropping into a flat, casual drawl, “I value not being abused when you inevitably drag me back.”
Noah flinched, his body freezing at her choice of words. Abused. The word felt like thick, boiling tar poured directly over his head. But beneath his immediate defensiveness, a brutal wave of guilt ruptured his composure. It was the truth. He felt the immense weight of remorse for the physical damage he had inflicted upon her in the past.
Moving with desperate swiftness, he rose from his knees and leaned over her lounge chair, caging her body beneath his massive frame. His hands gripped the wooden arms of the seat, trapping her beneath his intense focus.
“I will never be sorry enough for what happened, Mia,” he swore, his voice raw, thick with a dark, desperate vow as he stared directly into her eyes. “I swear to you on my life, it will never happen again. I will never lay a hand on you like that again.”
Mia didn’t flinch away from his proximity. Instead, she let out a cold, hollow laugh that cut through his declaration like a blade. “No... you’ll just ruthlessly annihilate everyone else, and then destroy yourself, all in the pathetic name of losing me.”
“I am going to do absolutely everything within my power to earn your forgiveness, Mia,” Noah delivered, his grip tightening against the chair as his jaw set in stone. “I swear to you... I will make myself worthy of you.”
Mia’s mouth compressed into a thin, tight line, her lips nearly disappearing as a cynical half-smile touched her face. “Sure, Jan.”
Noah’s dark eyebrows knitted together in immediate, genuine confusion at the bizarre retort. “Did you just call me Jan?”
Mia let out a soft, involuntary little giggle at the way the words had so effortlessly slipped past her guard. The phrase was a relic from a comedy film she had watched back during her time in London, a funny little piece of human vocalization she had mindlessly absorbed into her lexicon.
“Sorry. A little joke,” she murmured, shifting her gaze back out over the water. “It’s just a quote from an old movie.”
Gods, she missed her phone. Even though she had never been one to post on human social media platforms, the digital world had been a sanctuary of mindless entertainment. She could remain perfectly anonymous and still feel some semblance of connection to a larger reality. She missed the endless scroll of cute animal videos, the biting wit of funny text posts, and the wild, chaotic personal stories that were probably fabricated but highly entertaining nonetheless. The human realm was undeniably bleak a vast majority of the time, but it had offered her a life of her own making. She deeply missed the independence of the university she had attended and the quiet pride of her job.
She missed the dignity of labor. Even before Noah had upended her life, back when she was still adjusting to the rigid societal structures of Solaris, a woman’s future was always dictated by the whim of her husband. If a spouse permitted a woman to work, she could; if he forbade it, she was utterly trapped. And knowing Noah Stoll’s possessive nature, he would have locked the doors without a second thought.
“A woman’s place is in the home,” or some other prehistoric, misogynistic rhetoric designed to cage her.
It was a huge waste of her biological talents. She possessed the rare, extraordinary ability to actively heal the environmental dead zones, which were currently skyrocketing in frequency across the continent due to the fallout of the war. This was precisely what she had always envisioned using her manifestation for—to restore life to the soil, to actually help suffering people. But being locked away on this isolated island kept her completely severed from Lucas, stripped of her agency, and unable to help people in need.
Noah’s lips curved into a soft, genuine smile, his dark eyes crinkling at the corners. “I didn’t know you were capable of being funny.”
“Well... maybe you just don’t know me as well as you thought you did,” she replied. She kept her tone intentionally light, but the weight of the truth behind the words hung heavily between them nonetheless.
Noah didn’t pull back. Instead, he tightened his arms around her, burying his face in the crook of her neck. “I want to change that, Mia. I want to know absolutely everything about you. I know you are terrified to let me back into your mind.”
“That is because you use every single piece of information as a weapon whenever you see fit,” she delivered, her voice remarkably steady as she stared over his shoulder. “You love throwing my vulnerabilities back in my face the exact second it suits your agenda. Why on earth would I willingly hand you more ammunition?”
He squeezed her a little harder against his chest, a desperate edge bleeding into his hold. “Can you not at least attempt to try, baby? Come on... I will give you any answers you want about my past if you just give me a fraction of yours.”
Mia let out a long, weary sigh, the emotional exhaustion of the interrogation catching up to her. “I don’t want to talk about this right now, Noah. Can we please just go out on the jet skis now?”
“Sure,” Noah agreed, forcing his cadence back into a relaxed rhythm as he stepped away from her chair. “I’ll go fetch the keys from the main house. Sit tight.”
He turned and strode toward the side entrance, deliberately taking a longer route to keep her as far away from the storage garage as humanly possible. He would do absolutely anything within his power to ensure she didn't glimpse inside, fearing triggering the violent memory of what had transpired in the room.
A few minutes later, Mia was sitting down by the edge of the private docks, her toes digging into the warm sand as she waited for him. Noah jogged down the wooden planks, tossing her the key fob to the sleek green jet ski before effortlessly throwing his leg over his own sleek red model.
“So,” he called out over the gentle lapping of the waves, a playful, competitive spark returning to his features. “Are you brave enough to race me, sweetheart?”
Mia smirked, her eyes flashing with defiance as she clicked the key into the ignition. “Don’t you know by now, Stoll? I always beat you.”
“Oh, is the famously prideful Miss Collymore actively challenging me?” Noah baited her lightly, revving his engine until the powerful machine rumbled beneath him. “How about we make this a little more interesting?”
“And what precisely are the stakes?”
The unyielding competitor inside Mia flared to life, her eyes narrowing as she locked onto him. She had always harbored a desperate, bordering-on-obsessive desire to win, a trait deeply rooted in her childhood. For the longest time, achieving victory was the singular metric she believed brought any real value to her existence as a Founding Daughter. She had spent her entire youth trying to impress her demanding parents, to live up to a pristine familial legacy that both her mother and Lucas seemed to carry with effortless, natural grace. Mia, by contrast, had always struggled. She had been the awkward, unapproachable outcast in every room. Noah had relentlessly antagonized her back then, and because he possessed such a magnetic personality and popularity, the rest of their peers had gleefully followed his lead. But all of that petty childhood torment felt like a completely different lifetime now.
“If you win,” Noah began, his lips peeling back into a slow, calculating smile, “I will bring Lissa and Micah over to the island.”
In reality, he had already fully intended to execute this arrangement to make her happy, but he wanted her to believe she had fought for and won the prize herself.
Mia’s expression lit up instantly, the raw hope in her chest overriding her carefully constructed defenses. “Are you serious? You will actually permit me to see her?”
“Yes, baby. I will have them fly out tomorrow evening for dinner.”
She desperately needed this win. She would willingly throw herself into the mouth of a volcano if it meant getting to see her best friend again. But a warning bell rang loudly in her mind; this was an exceptionally high, luxurious offer from a man who never gave away pieces for free. He would inevitably demand an asset of equal value in return.
“And what exactly is it that you want if you win?” she inquired, her voice dropping into an apprehensive, guarded register.
“I want your absolute surrender,” Noah delivered, his storm-blue eyes locking onto hers with a deep intensity. “I am intimately aware that you are still actively mapping out structural paths to escape my perimeter, Mia, even though I know you are fully cognizant of the catastrophic consequences. You are constantly calculating a narrative in your mind that forces me into a corner where I have no choice but to let you go. If I win this race, you surrender. You let me into your mind fully—no more closing yourself off behind walls, no more intricate plotting. I want you to completely accept my presence in your life, and finally permit yourself to love me the way you know you desperately want to.”
Mia jolted, a cold shockwave of adrenaline turning her blood to ice. He knew. Oh gods, he knew she was actively seeking a logical loophole, a way to execute an impossible escape that bypassed his deadly ultimatums. He knew she was purposefully keeping him at a ten-foot emotional distance.
There was absolutely no way in hell she was going to let him win this race.
Yet, the emotional stakes were simply too high for her to walk away from the table. She needed Lissa. She needed a piece of her old life. There were no other viable options left on the board; she simply had to ensure his absolute defeat.
“Fine,” she delivered, her jaw setting into a rigid line of defiance. “I accept your terms.”
Noah blinked, a rare flicker of genuine shock crossing his aristocratic features. He was completely caught off guard that she hadn't immediately attempted to negotiate the parameters or craftily weasel her way out of it.
“Alright, you see those rocks resting on the far side of the shoreline?” Noah called out, gesturing across the choppy water. “Whoever manages to reach them first wins the bet.”
He was fully prepared to let her claim the victory. While he craved her surrender, he knew he had to truly earn it this time. He needed her to actively choose this reality. To choose him. Because if she didn't come to that conclusion on her own, she would never stop trying to find a way to escape him. This time, he was going to capture her heart until the mere thought of being apart from him became completely unimaginable.
“Ready... set... go!” he yelled, the words instantly swallowed by the roar of their ignitions as they both took off, speeding toward the distant destination.
Noah claimed the lead initially, his powerful red machine slicing through the wake. Mia pushed her throttle harder, maximizing her speed by standing up on the pads and fluidly shifting her weight to match the natural equilibrium of the rolling waves. Right as she was about to pull parallel to him, she angled her hull perfectly against the crest of a swell, sending a massive, blinding wall of ocean spray crashing directly over Noah.
She laughed out loud as he shook the water from his face, yelling over the engine roar, “Hey! That is cheating!”
She pulled ahead into the open water, shouting over her shoulder. “You never explicitly stated I couldn’t!” She stuck her tongue out at him before pinning the throttle to the handle.
Mia crossed the designated finish line first, her jet ski idling near the rocks as she threw her hands in the air, cheering triumphantly. “Ahhh!! I win! I win! Oh yeah!” Her grin was massive, her features completely illuminated by a flash of pure, unburdened happiness.
Noah pulled up right alongside her, his expression a mix of mock defeat and genuine adoration. “Fine, fine. You win, sweetheart. It looks like we are officially hosting guests for dinner tomorrow evening.”
Mia squealed in absolute delight, the victory sweet on her tongue.
This outcome was so much better than he had originally anticipated. She was happy. Truly, genuinely happy. He had initially considered simply surprising her with Lissa's arrival, but she was still deeply distrustful of his unprompted gestures. Plus, this manufactured victory handed her a distinct sense of triumph, a fleeting sliver of pride. It was a vital step toward giving her something to feel beyond the baseline of sadness, hatred, and distrust.
“Do you want to keep going?” he asked, his voice filled with lightness.
Mia enthusiastically nodded, her eyes bright beneath the sun, which made them shine like emeralds, his favorite color.
They spent the remainder of the afternoon out on the open water, riding the swells and aggressively launching waves of water at each other. Both of them were laughing, lost in the rhythm of the tides and a rare, unburdened peace. They were having so much fun that the concept of lunch was completely forgotten, and by the time the sun began its lazy descent toward the horizon, painting the sky in strokes of purple and gold, Noah knew it was time to head back to the estate.
“Alright, Mia, let us pack it in,” he called out, wiping a stray drop of saltwater from his eyebrow. “It is nearly dinner time, and we completely skipped our afternoon meal.”
“Okay, race you back!” she countered immediately, her breath coming in short, exhaled bursts. “But no high stakes this time—just purely for fun.” She flashed him a cheeky smile that made his chest tighten.
“You’re on, sweetheart.”
This time, Noah had no intention of conceding the match; he was going to try for real. They both pinned their throttles, rushing back toward the private docks. Because Noah was accustomed to the handling of these specific watercraft and possessed a flawless understanding of how to maneuver them through choppy currents, he easily claimed the lead. Still, he intentionally kept the margin slim. He absolutely did not want her deduction skills kicking in, realizing he had thrown the initial match to manipulate her emotions.
He pulled up to the wooden planks just a mere breath faster than her hull. He let out a rich roar of laughter, shaking his head. “It looks like the victory belongs to me this time.”
She twisted her mouth into a dramatic stink-face, though the lingering amusement in her eyes betrayed her frustration. “Yeah, yeah. You only managed to beat me by a literal hair, Stoll!”
Noah efficiently docked both vehicles, turning off the engines and pulling the key fobs from the ignitions. “A win is a win, and I think I will be collecting a proper prize for my efforts.”
Before she could register the shift in his posture, he bent down, lifting her effortlessly into his arms and turning to carry her up the sandy path toward the main house. “And do not even bother attempting to tell me that you are perfectly capable of walking, Mia. I am simply taking my trophy inside.”
The specific choice of the word trophy logically should have bothered her far more than it did. Under normal circumstances, she would have sharply snapped at him, fiercely reminding his colossal ego that she was a human being, not some shiny trinket to be won and displayed on a shelf. But the exhaustion of the day caught up to her, and she found herself completely lacking the energy to fight him. Mia let her body relax against his chest, allowing his sun-warmed, salt-sticky skin to heat her own damp frame as he carried her up the stone steps.
A shower, they both desperately needed a long, hot wash to scrub the dried sea salt from their skin before sitting down to eat.
They stripped off their damp swimsuits, leaving the discarded fabric in a heap on the tiled floor. Mia quickly paused to remove her tampon before stepping into the expansive, steaming stall alongside him. The second the hot water began cascading over their skin, Noah moved with urgency. He dragged her body flush against his, his large hand cupping the back of her head to pull her into a deeply possessive, hungry kiss. Mia tilted her head back, parting her lips to let him claim her deeper, her tongue tangling with his. Her naked form was like a siren's song, a strong force calling him to completely wreck himself against her.
She could feel the thick, heavy length of him hardening directly against her lower belly. Backing her up until her spine met the smooth, wet tile of the shower wall, Noah hooked his hands under her thighs and effortlessly hoisted her up, forcing her legs to wrap around his waist. He left her dangling there, her pussy pinned perfectly level with his rock-hard cock.
Before pushing inside, he deliberately rubbed the thick head of his shaft through her slick, wet folds, intentionally dragging his length right up against her hyper-sensitive clit. The friction shot intense bolts of white-hot pleasure straight down into her lower abdomen, making her toes curl.
He gripped her ass, bracing himself as he began to line his crown up with her tight entrance. Recognizing what was coming, Mia abruptly broke the kiss, her breathing shallow as a wave of self-consciousness hit her chest.
“Noah... stop,” she murmured, her cheeks flushing crimson beneath the spray. “It’s... it is really not the best time for this.”
Noah gave her a slow, wolfish smile, his dark eyes darkening with a purely feral intent. “Periods don’t stop anything but a sentence, baby.”
Without giving her a chance to overthink it, he sank his hips forward, pushing his massive width straight inside her wet heat. Her back arched violently off the tile at the stretching fullness, a sharp, breathless hiss of pure pleasure escaping her throat.
She had never participated in anything like this before, and the lingering embarrassment still threatened to crowd her mind. But Noah didn't give a damn about propriety or a little blood. They were in the shower, the rushing water washing it down the drain, and the only thing his predatory psyche cared about was the echoing sound of her desperate, uninhibited moans as he ruthlessly fucked her against the wall.
He started slow, his deep thrusts deliberate and slow to allow her body to fully adjust to his massive width before he ruthlessly picked up the pace. He began driving into her with an unyielding, rhythmic force, slamming his hips against hers harder and harder until the wet friction echoed over the sound of the rushing water. Mia’s legs tightened like a vice around his waist, her fingers digging into the wet muscles of his back to anchor herself against the sheer power of his momentum.
Noah moved his hand to the side of her face, fingers tangling in her damp hair to forcefully yank her head to the side. He bared the vulnerable junction of her neck and shoulder, immediately burying his mouth in the soft flesh to suck and bite with a feral, desperate intensity. He was completely consumed by the need to mark her skin, bruising the tissue until it was ruined with his signature. He wanted her to wear his marks, always a visible, undeniable brand for the whole world to see, so that everyone would recognize she belonged exclusively to him.
As Mia rapidly climbed toward her climax, her sharp, ragged moans grew louder and louder, bouncing off the tile walls. Noah tracked the frantic shift in her breathing, instantly recognizing that she was teetering on the edge of her release, and he kept his pace locked exactly where she needed it, refusing to give her a single second of relief.
Suddenly, Mia’s pussy began to flutter violently around his shaft, her inner walls clenching him in tight, desperate waves of a deep contraction. Right at the peak of her release, Noah bit down hard on her neck, the sudden sting causing her to scream into the steam, her orgasm hitting her twice as hard as her muscles locked tightly around him. Noah let out a low, primal growl as the intense pressure triggered his own release, his hips snapping forward one last time as he came deep inside her heat, filling her completely.
They paused in the heavy silence that followed, their ragged, breathless gasps perfectly in tandem beneath the cascading water.
Noah slowly let her legs slide down his torso, setting her feet back onto the wet floor. Mia felt completely spent, her muscles trembling so violently from exhaustion that she immediately leaned her entire weight against his chest for support. He gladly provided it, locking an arm around her waist to keep her upright.
Turning his attention to her care, he grabbed the soap and began to wash her down, his large hands moving with a meticulous, gentle precision as he thoroughly cleaned between her legs, rinsing away the evidence so she would feel comfortable. She was practically asleep on her feet, her eyelids completely closed. Noah carefully washed the remaining soap from her hair and guided her over to the small marble bench built directly into the shower wall, letting her sit down to rest while he quickly washed the sweat and salt from his own skin. Under normal circumstances, his dominant nature demanded that she be the one to wash him, but seeing how utterly depleted she was, he let the routine go.
After they stepped out, he wrapped her in an oversized, warm towel that he pulled from the custom warming drawer. She let out a long sigh of contentment, her body melting into the heat. Noah wrapped a second towel around his own waist before gently settling her onto the upholstered bench nearest the shower stall. Retrieving a brush, he began to smooth out the damp strands of her hair, working with practiced patience before twisting it into a loose, neat braid, a skill he still remembered from the early days of their history.
Once their skin was completely dry, he lifted her and set her into the massive expanse of the bed. He turned to gather her nightwear, but instead of walking over to her personal closet, he deliberately bypassed it, pulling one of his own crisp black shirts from his closet. He pulled it over her head, swallowing up her frame, fully aware that the familiar scent of his patchouli and rain clinging to the fabric would unconsciously soothe her psyche. He adhered a clean pad to her underwear and carefully pulled it up her legs.
“Alright, darling girl,” he murmured, his thumb brushing over her cheekbone. “We still need to consume some food tonight, but how about we eat in bed? I know you are comfortable.”
“Mmhm,” she breathed, her eyelids fluttering.
He slipped out of the room and made his way down to the main kitchen, instructing the estate’s night chef to prepare a fresh platter of chicken teriyaki. The dish came together quickly, and Noah headed back upstairs carrying the tray. By the time he re-entered the master suite, she was practically asleep, her head lulling against the mattress.
“Sit up for me, sweetheart,” he commanded softly.
He shifted her frame, propping her up against a mountain of plush down pillows. She was completely complicit, letting him maneuver her limbs and adjust her spine without a single complaint falling from her lips.
Noah climbed into the bed right next to her, pulling the tray onto his lap. He picked up the utensils and began to patiently feed her bite by bite, exactly the way he used to do in their past. It was one of those rare, intimate rituals they had uniquely shared before the chaos, a dynamic that felt natural, like a lost traveler finally coming home.
Once they had both finished eating, he set the tray outside the suite doors for the servants to collect in the morning. Sinking back beneath the duvet, he pulled her body tightly back into his arms, locking her against his chest. He buried his face in the sensitive crook of her neck, his lips brushing against the skin that was already beginning to bruise into a deep, vibrant purple from his bites.
“I love you, Mia,” he whispered against her ear, the vow vibrating deep in his throat.
Her voice was so quiet, thoroughly thick with the heavy onset of sleep. “Love you, too.”
Noah’s heart squeezed violently behind his ribs at the unexpected admission.
Perfect. He closed his eyes, a profound sense of absolute victory settling into his bones. This was, without a doubt, the best day of his life so far.