Page 25 of Marrying Mr. Wentworth (Austen Hunks #3)
Saturday just before sunrise — Ariana
I woke up warm.
Wrapped in heat and heartbeat and the faint scent of something I hadn’t let myself breathe in for a decade.
Christopher.
His arm was around my waist. My back was against his chest.
And I was…relaxed. Which should’ve terrified me. It did terrify me. Because my first instinct wasn’t to pull away. It was to stay.
My eyes opened slowly, the suite still shrouded in pre-dawn hush. The Strip was a blur of lights outside the window, but in here? Quiet. Steady. Safe.
I didn’t remember how it happened—how we ended up tangled like this. I’d fallen asleep on the left side, facing away. We hadn’t touched. I’d made sure of it.
But now?
His breathing was even. Asleep, maybe. Or pretending.
His hand rested low on my stomach, fingers splayed like muscle memory, like he used to hold me. Like he still knew how.
And worse?
So did I.
The worst part wasn’t the feel of him, or the way my body hummed at the contact.
The worst part was that it felt right.
Like something I’d missed. Like something I hadn’t let myself admit was missing.
I should have moved. Shoved him away. Made a dramatic exit with blanket tossing and a scathing one-liner.
But I didn’t. I stayed. For just one minute. For just a few more breaths.
I stared out the window, into the blur of a city that never slept, and let my body remember the way it used to feel to be loved.
Because for all the damage… There had been love too. Epic, fierce, one-of-a-kind love.
He hadn’t just been my boyfriend. He’d been my home.
And now he was a mistake with a marriage certificate and a dangerously good memory for where I used to like to be kissed. I could feel it.
His arm tightened slightly. Muscles flexing. Just enough to make me inhale. Just enough to make me want to lean back.
I closed my eyes again. Just for a second. Just to see if it felt the same.
It did.
And that scared me more than anything.
Because maybe I wasn’t as immune as I thought.
Maybe, just maybe…
I didn’t want to let go.