Page 154 of Sage Haven
Standing barefoot on his cold floor in his oversized t-shirt, hair tangled from sleep, skin still marked by his hands, trying to navigate his world as if I belonged here.
But I didn’t.
Not really.
Not in a place like this.
I didn’t belong anywhere anymore.
And yet, he wanted me here.
I exhaled slowly and caught my reflection in the dark glass of the cabinets. Pale, hollow-eyed. A ghost dressed in his clothes.
What did he see when he looked at me? Was it weakness? Or something else?
I shook my head. I wasn’t going to spiral. Not today. I needed to focus.
If I couldn’t understand why he wanted me here, then I’d give him a reason. I’d prove I could hold my own in this world. In his world.
Maybe even fit into it.
Maybe even… belong.
I turned back to the stove, adjusting the flame beneath the pan, watching the sauce settle into place with practiced ease. Cooking wasn’t new to me. It was grounding, a kind of ritual that reminded me I was still human, even when everything else tried to strip me of that truth.
And then—I felt him.
Before I heard him. Before he spoke.
He was there.
His presence shifted the air, thickened it, made everything in the room bend toward him.
Even me.
Especially me.
He was gravity.
A force I couldn’t resist.
“There you are.” His voice slid over me, dark and smooth, settling low in my belly like a warning. Or a promise.
I startled, nearly dropping the plate in my hands.
My heart skipped—too fast, too loud.
I turned.
And there he was.
Leaning in the doorway like he belonged in a painting. Effortless and devastating. His shirt was half-buttoned, his sleeves rolled carelessly to his elbows. A few strands of dark hair fell across his forehead, damp from the shower, or maybe sweat.
“One night in my bed,” he murmured, his gaze dragging slowly over me, pausing on my bare legs, “and already walking around like you own the place… in my shirt?”
I scrambled to pull myself together, torn between the urge to laugh and the sharp edge of embarrassment prickling beneath my skin.
“I—” I didn’t know what to say. I never did with him.
