When Lynsandra woke up, she paused the moment she tried to move. Her brows crinkled as she shifted slightly, only to notice the faint bite mark on her shoulder blade—along with the man hugging her from behind.

"..." She blinked, realizing why her body felt so sore.

Though it wasn’t a bad kind of soreness. Even with the ache, she felt light at the same time, as if every burden she had been carrying for years had finally been lifted.

Slowly, she turned to face him. Elias was sleeping peacefully, every line of his muscles fully exposed for anyone to see.

He looks tired.

She blinked, and the corner of her lips lifted into a faint smile.

Of course he was tired. With how hard he had worked the night before—until nearly morning—she had half expected him to snore. But she guessed that, like her, what they did had been a way to unload pent-up frustrations he had been holding in.

"..." A shallow breath escaped her as she took in every inch of his face.

Surely, he looked almost innocent while sleeping. It wasn’t the first time she had seen him asleep, yet each time, it amused her.

"I don’t regret it," she whispered softly, her eyes gentling. "If anything... I think I made the right decision."

Lynsandra leaned closer and planted a soft kiss on his forehead. His brows furrowed almost instantly, making her pull away carefully. She turned to the other side and was about to slide out of bed when his arms instinctively locked around her waist.

Then he pulled her closer.

"Don’t go," he murmured. "... Don’t go."

Arching a brow, she glanced at him to see if he had woken up. But his eyes remained closed. His hold, though keeping her close, wasn’t tight. In fact, his arms were loose enough that she could slip out anytime.

For a second, Lynsandra considered it, his breath brushing against the back of her head.

Once again, she found herself not moving an inch, deep in thought. A moment later, her body relaxed in quiet surrender.

Fine, she thought. I won’t go.

She looked back at him slightly and whispered, "So, stop begging."

Elias muttered something incoherent in his sleep, but eventually fell silent a minute later. Another shallow breath escaped her. She couldn’t fall back asleep anymore. Though she still felt drowsy, her mind refused to stop running.

What now, Lizzie? she asked herself.

What’s going to happen now?

Sleeping with Elias hadn’t been part of her plan. She had never imagined it would happen last night. As far as she was concerned, she had simply run away from Julian to avoid whatever serious conversation he intended to have.

Then she had stumbled upon Gareth and jokingly called it a "date."

She knew Gareth likely wouldn’t want to go on an official date with her. The man would panic at her mere presence. He might even have a full-blown panic attack at the mere thought of a date.

Eventually, she had fallen asleep, only to wake up with Elias already sitting across from her. Had she not made that sarcastic remark about it being their day, things wouldn’t have escalated like this. Not that she regretted it. But now that she thought about it, the escalation still genuinely surprised her.

Maybe it was the atmosphere between us last night, she thought, lifting her gaze to study him. Or maybe it was just all that piled-up frustration, and it felt right.

But at the end of the day, she liked it.

It made her think, "So this is what they call lovemaking," even as they were doing it, though she hadn’t been able to dwell on that thought with how intense the night had been.

"Regardless..." she hummed softly, her lashes fluttering as her eyes traced the sleeping man before her. "... it doesn’t matter."

It had already happened. And she didn’t regret giving that part of herself to him. Planned or not, it no longer mattered.

"I should make him breakfast," she whispered, sinking back slightly into his arms.

She only meant to rest for a moment before getting up, but somehow, she drifted back to sleep.

*

*

*

When she woke again, sunlight streamed through the window and shone across her face. She squinted, shielding her eyes with her hand. Once her vision cleared, she noticed Elias was now lying on his back.

I can’t believe I fell asleep again.

Pushing herself up carefully, she quietly slipped out of bed. Her ears twitched as she glanced down at her bare body, marked with traces of him. She simply shrugged and walked to his closet.

Lynsandra grabbed the first thing she could find, slipping on a random white shirt before heading out of the room.

Last night had been exhausting, and it left her starving.

She walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge.

"Eggs." She nodded to herself as she took out the carton, then rummaged through the cabinets until she found a small box of pancake mix.

Her lips curled up as she quickly got to work. She knew how to cook eggs, but it had been years since she’d made pancakes. Even back when she had lived a humble life for a short time, cooking had never been her strength.

She and Victor had needed to focus on surviving.

Reading the instructions carefully, she followed them with precision. However, despite measuring everything correctly and following each step, her batter somehow turned out either too watery or too dry to mix properly.

"Never mind," she muttered. "I’ll eat it regardless."

With that decision made, Lynsandra transferred the burnt eggs onto a plate and poured large portions of the uneven batter into the same pan. As she waited, her thoughts drifted again, her brows furrowing.

Should I have changed the pan at least? But he only has one frying pan. Maybe I should use a pot? What’s the difference anyway?

She was so deep in thought that she didn’t notice her pancakes slowly burning beyond salvation.

Before she could snap out of it, a large, warm body pressed against her back, and a pair of arms wrapped around her waist from the front.

"Hmm?"

Then came his voice, low and amused.

"Good morning... what did I do to deserve waking up this happy?"