Ivan’s POV

I woke to sunlight streaming through my bedroom windows and the unfamiliar but entirely welcome sensation of another body in my bed.

Aurelius.

He was still here. Still holding me, one arm draped possessively across my waist, his face buried in my hair. I could feel his breath against the back of my neck, steady and even in sleep.

He’d stayed.

The relief that flooded through me was almost embarrassing. Some part of me had worried that once the heat of the moment passed, once his control reasserted itself, he’d regret everything. That I’d wake up alone with nothing but bruises and bite marks to prove last night...