🔹 THORNE
​She stirred and I stiffened, yet somehow, I refused to let her go. Sitting up, I felt her go still, my arms having dropped to her midsection. I could hear the frantic rhythm of her thoughts, smell the sharp tang of shock and panic at what she had just woken up to.
​This was not the first time I had slept beside her, but it was the first time I had allowed it to happen since we began sharing something as non-sexually intimate as a room. She did not move for a long while, her eyes boring into my temple so intensely that I could feel the weight of her stare like a physical pressure.
​I cut the moment short by pretending to stir, opening my eyes until our gazes locked in that charged silence. Neither of us uttered a word; our eyes spoke volumes that our mouths refused to voice. I pulled my arms away slowly, sitting up fully.
​"If you're uncomfortable," I said, my voice rougher than I intended, "I won't sleep on the bed again."
