I blinked slowly, trying to process his words through the lingering fog of euphoria. My throat felt raw, vocal cords shredded from overuse. Every inch of my skin tingled, hypersensitive and marked by the ropes' embrace. And my ass, fuck, it ached in the best possible way.
“Just relax,” he cooed, running his hand through my hair almost like he was petting me. “We can stay here as long as you need.”
I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against his chest. My throat was raw and slightly sore. Somehow, I summed that up with a single word. “Thirsty.”
The next thing I knew, Shepherd was pressing a cool bottle of orange juice into my hands that I drank down greedily. I handed the empty bottle back to him and settled in against him once more, eyes sliding closed. “You know,” I said, “I could get used to this.”
He smiled and kissed me. “Please do. We have all the time in the world now, Eli.”
Nestled against him, his heartbeat steady under my ear, the meaning of those words sank in.All the time in the world. It felt like a promise, a grounding certainty I’d never had before. No more running, no more looking over my shoulder—just us, and this calm, shared space we’d created together.
I took a slow breath, savoring the moment, letting the warmth of his embrace soothe any last trace of tension in my body. This wasn’t just the aftermath of a scene. It was something bigger, more lasting, as if each touch, each shared look, had woven us together as surely as the ropes had bound my body.
“I love you, Sir,” I murmured.
Shepherd’s hand traced a slow, reassuring line down my back, settling at the small of it as if to anchor me to him. “I love you too, boy.”
I settled back against his chest, feeling the rise and fall of his breathing, each steady beat of his heart matching mine. Outside, the world went on, indifferent and relentless. Tomorrow, there would be work to do, places to be, people to save. But here, in this quiet space, time had no hold on us. And as I closed my eyes, feeling his arms wrap tighter around me, I knew that this—all of us, together—was what I’d been searching for all along.
***
