Chapter 82 The Edge Of Silence

• The morning sun painted the penthouse in shades of gold. Ariana stirred awake slowly, her cheek still pressed against Damien’s chest. His arm rested heavily across her waist, warm and steady, like even in sleep he refused to let her go.
• For a moment, she lay still, breathing him in. The scent of his skin, faintly spiced with cologne, the steady beat of his heart under her ear. She wanted to stay here forever, wrapped in the kind of quiet she had once believed was impossible for her.
• But reality had a way of intruding.