Page 150 of Sage Haven
Slowly, carefully, I peeled myself away from her, shifting my weight so the bed wouldn’t creak. Her hand slid from my chest with the faintest graze, and my throat tightened at the loss. I ran a hand down her bare back, my fingers trailing along the curve of her spine once more—softly, like I was memorizing it.
I pressed a kiss to her shoulder. She stirred but didn’t wake.
It felt… wrong to leave.
But I did.
Because that’s who I was.
I crossed the room silently, grabbing the t-shirt I’d left on the floor and pulling it over my head as I went. My movements were precise. Practiced. Years of slipping out of places unnoticed left their mark. But this wasn’t the same. I wasn’t running.
I wasn’t escaping.
I was just… getting ready for the day.
I slipped into the bathroom and closed the door behind me with a soft click. I stood there for a long minute, staring at myself, tracing the faint scar beneath my jaw with my thumb. A ghost from another life. Another version of myself.
The man staring back at me was a stranger.
I splashed water over my face, rubbed the rough edge of my jaw. Shaved. Pulled on dark clothes.
Routine. Clean lines. Precision.
But I could feel it under my skin.
A restlessness.
A hum in my blood that hadn’t been there before.
By the time I made it to the kitchen, the house was already alive with faint sounds. The quiet murmurs of life, carefully orchestrated beneath my roof.
But something about today felt different.
I felt different.
I moved toward the counter, letting instinct guide me. I grabbed a glass, filled it with water from the tap, drank half of it before setting it down.
Then I saw the bowl of fruit on the counter.
Bright, fresh oranges.
I never ate them in the morning. Hell, I rarely ate them at all.
But I grabbed one anyway, tossed it into the air, and caught it.
A grin tugged at the corner of my mouth.
It felt easy. Effortless.
Lightness settled over me, and it was foreign. Unfamiliar. Like some piece of myself I hadn’t seen since I was a kid had clawed its way back up from the depths.
And then, of course, Castor showed up to ruin it.
He emerged from the hallway, his presence filling the space with the same old swagger and sharp-edged awareness that had always been there. His gaze found me immediately.
Sharp. Calculating. Curious.
His lips curved into a smirk that made it clear he was about to be an asshole.
