***Aldrik***
Stepping back from Cassius was one of the hardest things I'd ever done.
Every instinct I possessed screamed at me to close that distance again, to cage him against the counter and kiss him until he stopped thinking about boundaries and choices and every rational reason we shouldn't be doing this.
To pin him down and make him understand through touch what words had never been able to convey during our marriage, that he was mine and I was his and nothing else mattered.
But that was exactly the kind of thinking that had destroyed us the first time.
Taking without asking, claiming without earning the right, assuming my desires overrode his needs.
So I forced myself to step back, to put real space between us, to give him room to breathe even though my body was vibrating with the need to touch him.
My hands were shaking. I clenched them into fists at my sides to hide it.
