HENRY POV
It didn’t feel real, not even a little. Part of me wanted to lean over and ask Dax to give me a pinch, just to make sure this wasn’t some fever dream I’d wake up from in an empty bed. But it was real—her coconut scent wrapping around us like a blanket, the warmth of her body pressed between us, the sweet, addictive taste of her skin as I pressed gentle kisses along her neck and shoulder. My ladybug. So fierce, so damn fragile, and here in our arms, letting herself be held, letting herself be ours, even if she didn’t fully realize it yet.
I held back from kissing her lips, even though every cell in my body wanted nothing more than to claim her, to have her entirely, in every possible way. But not now—now wasn’t the time to let desire take over. Right now, Maria needed tenderness
