Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 19922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
She tried to hold still. She tried to breathe. She couldn't do either.
"Mykos..." she whispered, and she didn't even know what she was asking for, but he seemed to know, because his mouth curved against her skin and he murmured something in Greek that she couldn't understand but felt, deep, deep in her chest.
Tears stung her eyes when they finally became one, and he went still above her, his forehead pressed to hers, his breathing ragged, waiting for her. Just...waiting. Like he would have stayed there forever if she needed him to. His hands found hers and their fingers intertwined against the sheets, and the way he held her—firm and trembling at the same time—told her something his voice never would.
"I'm okay," she whispered, and she felt his breath catch. "I'm okay, I'm okay..."
And a little while later, as the pain turned into something beautiful, they also started moving as one, and...oh...oh...the way he was making her feel—
It was like drowning, but in reverse. Like she had been underwater her entire life and was only now breaking the surface, and every nerve in her body was singing, and she couldn't tell anymore where she ended and he began, and she didn't want to.
"Mykos."
It was her first time to say his name, and she didn't really plan on doing so. It simply happened, his name slipping past her lips as she came apart, and as ripples of pleasure pounded her body, she realized he was right behind her, and because they were now one...
"Maika."
It was her name on her husband's lips, and it was the sweetest sound she had ever heard.
He held her afterward. Just held her, his face in her hair, his arm heavy and warm across her waist, his thumb tracing lazy circles on her hip. She could feel his heart pounding against her back—wild, unsteady, nothing at all like the controlled man who commanded rooms and made grown men look at their shoes.
She wanted to say something. Something meaningful, something worthy of the moment. But what came out instead was: "I have a midterm on Friday."
His arm tightened around her, and she felt his chest shake with a laugh he tried to hold back. It was the first time she had ever heard him laugh, and the sound of it—low, surprised, almost involuntary—was so unexpected that her eyes filled all over again.
Oh no. Don't cry. Not now. Not when everything is so—
She pressed her face into the pillow so he wouldn't see. But he turned her toward him, and his thumb caught the tear that had slipped down her cheek, and the look on his face when he saw her crying was something she would never forget.
Not alarm. Not confusion.
Wonder.
Like he couldn't quite believe she was real. Like he had been bracing for something cold and gotten something warm instead, and he didn't know what to do with it.
She didn't know what to do with it either.
So she tucked her face against his chest, and listened to his heartbeat settle, and felt his lips press against her hair, and thought: I am in so much trouble.
THE SUN HAD STARTED to rise by the time his wife succumbed to an exhausted sleep. He had made love to her for hours, and now, as he gazed down at her beautiful, innocent face...
He was right about her.
She was indeed the light that kept the darkness away.
But how long that would last, though...
Only time would tell.
Learning to Breathe
learning to breathe (v.): the process of adjusting to a life you didn't choose, in a house you don't deserve, with a man who leaves notes like telegrams
MAIKA WOKE UP ALL ALONE in a bed that felt all the more enormous because her husband wasn't around.
She stared up at the ceiling, which was higher than her entire apartment had been tall.
This...
This was her life now.
For better or for worse, she was now Mrs. Mykos Ravensworth, and oh!
When Maika reached for his pillow, it was then she saw the note he had left under it.
Are you about to hug this pillow because you miss my scent?
Maika choked back a laugh even as she felt herself turning red. H-How in the world had he known?
She was still blushing even after having already taken a shower, but her embarrassment eventually faded when she stepped out of her bedroom and found herself lost in her new home after just ten minutes.
Maika took a left, then a right, but when this ended in another hallway, she tried to trace her steps back, but somehow she ended up at a dead end, and okay, okay, there was no need to panic. Wasn't there a rule about having to keep heading north when one was lost?
She was sure that was a rule, but the problem was...
How would she know which way was north if she didn't have a compass? She was sure it had to do with the sun, but she forgot how that worked, and...it's okay, it's okay, don't panic.