Chapter 12
Alexander
I Didn't Know Happy
You’re gone. But your scent still lingers on my sheets—warm skin, champagne, something soft and feminine that makes my throat tighten.
Your taste is still on my tongue, haunting me with every swallow.
And every damn second since you slipped quietly out of my bed, I’ve been replaying the whisper you left behind:
“This was a mistake.”
No.
Absolutely not.
You don’t get to call us a mistake. You don’t get to tremble beneath me, lose yourself under my mouth, cling to me like you’ve never clung to anyone—and then walk out as if you weren’t shaking for me all night.
You don’t get to unravel me, to drag sounds out of my chest I’ve never made with another woman and then pretend you regret writing the chapter we lived through in my bed.
You think I didn’t notice the way you looked at me afterward? The way your fingers brushed my arm as if memorizing it? The fear behind your eyes—the fear of feeling too much?
I saw all of it. Because you’re not the only one hiding. And still… you left. I told myself it was fine. I didn’t care. That women leave and it’s better that way.
I told myself to let you go, to let you run from whatever last night awakened in you. But I can’t. I can’t unhear your moans. Can’t unsee the way your back arched for me. Can’t unfeel the way your body trusted mine, even when your mind insisted it shouldn’t.
I let you go. But I won’t let you forget.
Not the way I touched you. Not the way you came apart for me. Not the way your voice broke when you whispered my name like a prayer you didn’t want answered.
You think this ends because you snuck out at sunrise?
No, Evelyn.
This is where it begins.