ELARA'S POV
I woke up before him.
Lay still and listened to the rain, which had continued from yesterday, lighter now, more suggestion than statement. The room was dim and warm and Damien was asleep beside me on his stomach with his arm across my waist.
I didn't move for a long time.
I thought about nothing in particular. Let my mind go where it went, which was nowhere urgent. The exhibition sequence we'd fixed yesterday. The Croatian ceramic on the shelf. Daniel pressed yes three times. The soup was better the second day.
Everything settled overnight into one thing.
I turned my head and looked at him.
Asleep he looked younger. Not the CEO, not the man navigating complicated family reckonings. Just a person at rest, his face slack and unguarded, his breathing even.
I'd spent three
