Chapter 621 The Forbidden Fruit(Incest/Taboo Sex):>Ep3

• [steam and secrets]
• I wake first, the sheets damp from humidity and last night's activities. The distinctive sound of water lapping against the palazzo's foundations rises from below, a gentle percussion that's become the soundtrack to our stay. A distant church bell tolls from across the lagoon, San Giorgio Maggiore marking six, the bronze notes reverberating across the water, seeming to make the air itself vibrate. Beyond the windows, I can smell the peculiar morning scent of Venice, slightly briny, with hints of diesel from the early morning vendors' boats motoring through narrow canals.
• I slip from bed, careful not to wake my son. The word still catches in my throat. Last night we'd... Christ. I glance back at his sleeping form, sheets tangled around his waist, the flat plane of his stomach rising and falling steadily. So different from my own body, the softness at my middle that no amount of Pilates has managed to firm. Maggie and Danny still asleep in the adjoining room.