The Marriage Gamble

Blissful Awakenings

Sonja's lashes fluttered open, at first disoriented by the warm weight draped across her midsection. Blinking slowly, she turned her head to find Antoine's slumbering face mere inches away, his chiseled features lax and serene in the hazy morning light filtering through the sheer curtains.

A soft, utterly contented sigh escaped her lips as the memories of last night's rapturous joining came flooding back. How his calloused hands had mapped every swell and plane of her body with reverent hunger. The hot brand of his lips blazing a scorching path along her feverish skin as he murmured ardent adorations against her flesh.

As if sensing her gaze, Antoine stirred, his arm tightening fractionally around her bare midriff. When his eyes blinked open, molten cinnamon warmth met her starstruck perusal head-on, crinkling at the corners with an unbridled, dimpled grin.

"Good morning, beautiful," he rasped, voice still gruff and deliciously husky from sleep.

Heat bloomed across Sonja's cheeks, her lips curving in a reflexive, bashful smile. She still felt utterly unmoored by the profound intimacy they had shared, the boundaries they had shattered between them with reckless abandon. Where did that leave them now?

Seeming to sense her drifting contemplation, Antoine shifted until they were nose to nose, tangling their legs beneath the rumpled sheets.

"Stay here with me?" he murmured, the invitation made richer, more weighted by the sugared timbre of his tone. "I could hold you like this forever and die a happy man."

Her breath hitched at the unabashed adoration blazing in his brandy stare. For a fleeting moment, they simply drank each other in - souls laid bare, walls crumbled to dust between their tangled forms.

Then the jarring trill of Antoine's phone from the bedside table jerked them back to reality. He sighed, pressing his forehead to hers and screwing his eyes shut as if to savor their cocoon of afterglow a beat longer. Finally, reluctantly, he pressed a lingering kiss to the corner of her lips before untangling himself from their intimate embrace.

"That'll be Luca reminding me about this bloody investor meeting," he grumbled, hunching forward and running a hand through his tousled hair. "I need to lock down a few days off for...the wedding." His gaze cut sideways at her, heated yet questioning.

Sonja worried her lower lip between her teeth, considering. Their first steps into intimacy had cleaved every pretense to shreds between them, but what would come next in this strange dance?

Seeming to sense her trepidation, that boyish half-smile curved Antoine's lips again as he trailed the backs of his knuckles along her flushed cheek.

"Hey, no need to overthink this, yeah?" He leaned in for another toe-curling kiss, branding her senses with his warm, masculine scent. "We're still us, ma belle. Just...with some delightful new perks."

She couldn't resist a breathless giggle at his playful growl, heart fluttering in her chest. There would be time to analyze, to navigate whatever new terrain they had unlocked later. For now, she simply wanted to bask in the soft morning glow and radiant joy bubbling within her.

Antoine swung his legs over the side of the bed but paused halfway to his feet, running an appreciative gaze over her mussed, gloriously disheveled form still swathed in rumpled sheets. Sonja shivered, unable to hide her delight at his molten undressing.

"You know..." she began, pitching her tone to a sultry murmur. "If you're worried about being late...we could always shower together. Conserve some water?"

His answering grin was utterly rapacious, eyes blazing like molten gold in the sunlight. "Absolutely brilliant idea."

In one smooth motion, he scooped her into his arms bridal-style, sheets and all, carrying her giggling form towards the  bathroom. Antoine paused in the doorway, devouring her with a look of such naked, unrestrained longing that it made her toes curl.