The night settled around them in thick silence, the kind that pressed against the windows and dulled the world beyond the walls of her apartment. Lilly slept soundly, her breath even and soft against Mark's chest, her body curled into him with a trust that pierced him deeper than he cared to admit.
She looked fragile like this. Bare. Not the careful, polite girl in blouses and neat skirts he had watched from behind his desk, but stripped down to something far more dangerous, innocence mixed with temptation, and all of it his.
Mark didn't close his eyes. He didn't even try. Instead, he watched her like an eagle. The way her lashes lay like shadows against her cheeks, the faint parting of her lips, the steady rise and fall of her chest. He studied her like a man studies something rare, something he has no intention of letting slip away.
