Chapter 7

The silence of the morning was not empty; it was heavy, saturated with the scent of him and the lingering, electric residue of the night before. I lay nestled against the broad expanse of his chest, my head tucked into the crook of his neck, breathing in the deep, rhythmic pull of his heartbeat. It was a slow, steady drum that had kept time with my own racing pulse long after the frantic energy of the planetarium had faded into the quiet intimacy of his quarters. Sunlight, pale and tentative, filtered through the high, arched windows of the observatory lodge, casting long, dusty beams across the floor. It was a strange place to wake up, suspended between the cold vacuum of space and the warmth of his skin, but it felt right. The transition from the viewing deck to here had been a blur of half-dressed, breathless laughter and tangled limbs, him carrying me bridal-style up the spiral stairs while I buried my face in his shoulder, my legs wrapped tightly around his waist like a vice. We hadn’t spoken much then, too consumed by the urgent need to be alone, to be *ours*. Now, with the world outside just