Adam lowered Ella gently onto the soft bed in the small countryside inn, as though she were made of something fragile and irreplaceable. The mattress dipped slightly beneath her weight, the thin linen sheets rustling softly as she settled into them.
For a moment, he didn't move, he just looked at her, not fully believing she was was right there within his reach.
He stared at the delicate curve of her cheek, the faint rise and fall of her chest as she breathed, and at the strands of red hair that had escaped her carefully styled bun and now lay scattered across the pillow like threads of fire.
It didn't feel real.
After everything… after all the lifetimes, all the almosts, and all the missed chances, she was here right in front of him.
Slowly, as though afraid she might vanish if he moved too quickly, Adam reached out and brushed his fingers lightly against her cheek. It was warm and soft.
A quiet exhale left him, something between relief and disbelief.
