CH.40

"Get off me, Karl, you're too heavy," I muttered breathlessly once I had regained some of my senses, trying in vain to squirm out from under the solid weight of his large frame pinning me to the mattress.

He flashed me a wicked grin that held not a shred of remorse, his eyes still glittering with the lingering embers of satisfaction before rolling off me and tugging my sweat-slicked body flush against his chest in an almost tender embrace.

As much as I wanted to resist the gesture, to push him away and create some much-needed distance between us, I couldn't deny the small flicker of comfort and security I felt being enveloped in the scorching heat of his arms and surrounded by his overwhelming presence.

---

I woke with a start to the first rays of golden morning light creeping through the edges of the heavy curtains, momentarily disoriented and deeply unsettled by the vivid remnants of the previous night's activities.

It took me a few seconds to get my bearings and remember that I