Lunara flicked her eyes open.
A dull sting hit her first, the light filtering in through tall glass windows. But it was the sharp ache in her back that truly woke her, so sudden it made her bite her lower lip the mont she shifted.
"What the hell..." she muttered, her voice raspy.
Her gaze swept the room, still hazy with sleep. High ceilings. Neutral walls. Floor-to-ceiling windows with sheer curtains dancing gently in the morning breeze. The bed beneath her was massive, everything was too unfamiliar.
Her eyes widened and almost instantly she looked down at her body and saw her body was now wore a cute pink pajamas.
"Where am I?!"
Lunara sat up too fast, the sudden movent sending a sharp ache down her spine.
Her heart pounded in her chest as she clutched the sheets tighter around her.
What happened last night?
She forced herself to breathe. Think.
The bar.
She rembered the bar. The loud music, the taste of sothing sweet on her tongue... orange juice, wasn’t it? And then... Everything was blurred.
Frowning, she tried to squeeze every detail from the haze in her mind. Her eyebrows furrowed, lips parting as sothing suddenly clicked.
Her eyes snapped wide. "Adam!"
"Adam?"
Eryx’s voice echoed from the hallway, low and confused.
He stepped into view, steam drifting behind him. His hair was damp from the shower, and he wore nothing but a towel wrapped low around his waist. Drops of water glistened along his collarbone and chest but Lunara barely registered that.
The mont she saw him, everything else vanished, every ache, every fear, even the vague sha she’d been ready to drown in.
"Thank God! It was you!" she scread.
Without thinking, she bolted toward him, launching herself straight into his arms.
Caught off guard, Eryx stumbled back a step but wrapped his arms around her instinctively. She clung to him, legs around his waist, arms tightly looped around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder as if trying to lt into him.
He blinked, caught sowhere between laughter and concern. "Okay, okay... do you miss this much?"
"You have no idea what I just imagined," she mumbled, her voice muffled against his skin. "I thought I drank and slept..." Her words trailed off.
A sudden wave of realization hit her.
Her eyes widened slightly, and she froze in his arms. ’What was I thinking?’ The bar... the drinking... being out without anyone watching over her... She wasn’t a teenager anymore, but still...what if what she feared had really happened? What if she’d made a mistake she couldn’t undo?
She slowly pulled back, her arms loosening around his neck. "I’m sorry," she muttered, her voice barely above a whisper.
Eryx raised his eyebrows, looking puzzled. "Why are you apologising? You are not doing anything wrong."
Lunara pouted, her lips started to tremble, but before her tears started to gather, she slamd her head on his shoulders again. "I don’t know."
He blinked at the sudden impact, then let out a soft chuckle, wrapping his arms around her again. "You’re going to bruise my shoulder at this rate."
"I don’t know why I feel like crying," she mumbled against his skin, her voice small. "I just... I panicked. And then I saw you, and it felt like everything snapped into place. And now I’m embarrassed."
Eryx rested his chin on her head, his voice low and soothing. "Is this a way to tell that you forget everything that was happening last night?" He rubbed his chin on her head lightly before pulling away.
Slowly walking to the bed, he put her down, "Tell which bar you went to yesterday?" He crouched down, looking straight at her.
Lunara blinked, caught off guard by the question. "The bar?" she echoed, hesitating.
Eryx nodded patiently. "Yeah. Do you rember which one?"
She squinted, trying to recall. "It had... gold lights? And a tall glass wall behind the counter... I think there was a neon sign shaped like a cherry."
Eryx’s brows lifted slightly. "Cherry 88?"
Her eyes lit up. "Yes! That one."
He let out a slow breath and gave a small nod. "Good. I’ll check with them, just to make sure nothing happened while you were there." Then, with a sudden chuckle, he leaned forward and tapped her nose lightly. "And what the heck were you muttering about donkey, monkey last night? Callum spent half the night searching the city for a bar with that na."
Lunara blinked, then covered her face in embarrassnt. "Oh no..."
Eryx’s laugh was warm, filling the room like a slow sunrise. "Honestly, I was worried sick, but when you finally walked back to the villa and started blurting out cute adorable things like animal nas, I thought... yeah, that’s my wife."
Her hands lowered slightly, her eyes peeking through her fingers. "We’re not exactly... back together, are we?"
He tilted his head. "Do we have to define it right now?"
She didn’t answer. She couldn’t.
Eryx reached for her hand, threading his fingers through hers as he sat beside her on the edge of the bed. "Did you find the answer you wanted while we were living apart?" His thumb brushed across her knuckles.
Lunara looked down at their joined hands, her lashes casting long shadows on her cheeks. "Hmm..." she pouted, "Why didn’t you contact for the whole month?"
Eryx looked at her, his thumb still brushing gently over her knuckles. "Because I was afraid," he admitted softly. "Afraid that if I called, you’d tell it was really over. That you’d made up your mind."
Lunara’s eyes lifted slowly to et him. "So you thought... silence would hurt less?"
He gave a crooked smile, one that didn’t quite reach his eyes. "It didn’t. Every day felt heavier. I kept checking my phone like an idiot, hoping you’d text first."
Her lips twitched, not quite a smile. "I waited too," she whispered. "Even dread of your number showing up."
He let out a low breath and reached up, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Then I guess we’re both idiots."
She leaned into his touch, her voice barely audible. "But we still found our way back, didn’t we?"
He nodded, his voice rougher now. "Yeah... and this ti, I am sure about my feelings." He leaned closer, pulling her up on his lap,1 "Don’t tell to give you space again, every part of is tearing up every second from missing you."
He just loves to pull Lunara up on his lips, tsk tsk tsk..
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