Chapter 213: Dealing with leftovers (1)
The first pale light of morning crept through the edges of the curtains, softening the shadows across the suite. The manor beyond was still, caught in that brief hush before servants stirred and day began in earnest.
Trevor woke quietly, not with a start but with that instinctive pull toward wakefulness honed over years. For a long moment he didn’t move, only let his eyes adjust to the soft grey glow.
Beside him, Lucas lay turned slightly toward him, still deep in sleep. The blanket had slipped low on his chest, his robe discarded somewhere in the night, leaving the gentle rise and fall of his breathing visible. Ash‑blond hair spilled in loose strands across the pillow, catching the faint morning light like threads of silver and gold.
Trevor shifted onto an elbow, careful not to disturb him. He let himself look.
Those lashes, long, fine, cast soft shadows over skin that carried no trace of the last day’s strain. His lips were parted just slightly, breath warm and even. And beneath that calm exterior, Trevor could feel the quiet thrum of Lucas’s presence, the bond between them subtle but undeniable, woven deep now in a way that words couldn’t undo.
His husband. In every way that mattered.
Trevor reached out without thinking, brushing the edge of Lucas’s hair back from his brow with the lightest touch of his fingers. Lucas didn’t stir, only let out a small sigh, lashes fluttering but not opening.
Trevor’s mouth curved faintly. There was power in this, this simple act of watching, of knowing that all the walls Lucas built for the world dropped here, in this room, between them.
He let his hand rest against the pillow near Lucas’s shoulder, leaning down just enough that his breath stirred that soft hair. "You’ll sleep through an earthquake," Trevor murmured, quiet enough to be meant only for himself.
For another long minute, he simply stayed there, drinking in the sight, before easing back against the headboard, careful not to wake him, content for now to watch the morning stretch itself gently over the man who had become his whole world.