Chapter 1065
The morning began with damp grass and sunlight dripping through the trees like melting gold. The air was warm, thick with the perfume of blooming vines curling along the tree trunks, and birds whispered lazy songs into the silence. The scent of firewood, freshly baked roots, and crushed berries drifted over the clearing where the women moved slowly, lingering in each other’s company, touch hanging between them like something sweet and unspoken. Rose stretched in front of the fire, her back arched deliberately, eyes half-lidded as she ran her fingers through her long, wild hair. Her tunic slipped off one shoulder, revealing a smooth line of skin and the curve of her breast as she reached for a fruit from the basket.
Jude, already shirtless and barefoot, walked out from the house with his usual ease, his eyes instantly locking onto her. Rose didn’t speak. She smiled. That same curve of her lips, that knowing gleam in her eyes, made his pulse quicken without reason. She bit into the fruit slowly, letting the juice roll down her fingers, and Jude stepped toward her like a moth drawn into the slow flicker of a dangerous flame. But before he reached her, Layla slipped between them.
Her body was already slick with riverwater from her morning swim, her tunic clinging to her curves and leaving nothing to the imagination. Her lips were glossy from biting into a piece of honeyed bark, and her eyes sparkled with something almost mischievous as she tilted her head and gave Jude a look that said she wasn’t in the mood to share. She slid her arm around Rose’s waist, pulled her in, and whispered something against her ear that made Rose giggle.
Then, without breaking eye contact with Jude, Layla kissed Rose full on the mouth.
It wasn’t just a kiss. It was slow, burning, messy and deep, Rose’s hands locking behind Layla’s neck as she arched into her. Jude exhaled hard, his breath catching in his throat. It wasn’t jealousy that gripped him. It was hunger. Desire coiled tightly in his belly like a spring being wound just past its limit.
Behind him, Zoey froze mid-step. She had come from the forest path, holding a bundle of herbs and tender root vegetables. Her expression was neutral at first, even amused. But then it changed. She tilted her head slightly, narrowing her eyes as she watched Rose’s fingers curl into Layla’s hair with almost too much eagerness. It wasn’t that the intimacy was strange, it never had been. They had all grown used to touching, loving, indulging in one another. But something was...off.
She said nothing.
The morning rolled on with heat rising and laughter echoing. Rose seemed insatiable today. She brushed against Grace while collecting firewood, her fingertips skimming the back of her neck like a feather. She danced barefoot around Stella, laughing as she tugged her close by the hem of her skirt. When Emma knelt to fix a loose part of the cooking pit, Rose pressed a kiss to the small of her back and whispered something that made Emma blush crimson.
And Layla was just as electric.