The air outside was warmer than I expected, sunlight spilling across the stone paths and curling around the edges of the mansion like it belonged there. Ray walked beside me at an easy pace, one hand tucked into his pocket, the other loosely entwined with mine. Not tight. Not possessive. Just… there. Steady. As if he assumed I would stay unless I chose otherwise.
I noticed how different it felt to walk next to him in daylight.
At night, everything about Ray carried weight—shadows, quiet intensity, the sense that the world bent around him because it had to. In the sun, he still looked powerful, still unmistakably in control, but softer somehow. Human. Like the sharpness dulled just enough to let something warmer show through.
He caught me looking.
“What?” he asked, glancing down at me.
