Sleep receded not with a jolt, but like a gentle tide pulling back from the shore. Consciousness returned to Linda wrapped in a profound, unfamiliar sense of peace. The crushing weight of the empty house was gone.
In its place was a warmth, a presence.
A rhythm.
Her eyes fluttered open to the soft grey light of dawn filtering through the windows. And there he was.
His face was almost no inches from hers, so close that his features were slightly blurred. He was asleep, his head resting on the cushion beside her, his body curled on the floor like a guardian lion at the foot of a throne. In the quiet stillness, his beauty was almost shocking. The strong line of his jaw was relaxed, his lips slightly parted.
Even in sleep, there was a power to him, a godly serenity that made the air around him seem to hum with a low, protective energy like the universe itself had approvedwho he was from beginning and what he was becoming and wrapped it's whole self around him.
