It was sometime after midnight, the kind of late where the world outside had gone silent and the only sound was the soft hum of the ceiling fan above us. The sheets were twisted at the bottom of the bed, half-kicked off during the warmer parts of the evening, and I was lying on my side, trying to cool off.

And then there was Rafe.

Clingy, warm, always-touching-me Rafe.

He had me wrapped up like I was a body pillow. One leg tossed over mine, one arm slung across my waist, his face buried in the crook of my neck like he could breathe easier with me that close. Every time I shifted, trying to steal a little space or find a cooler patch of the mattress, his grip only tightened.

“Where are you going?” he mumbled against my skin, voice low and scratchy with sleep.

“Nowhere,” I whispered. “Just trying not to melt.”

His arm tightened. “You’re not allowed to melt. You’re staying right here.”

I laughed softly, brushing his hair back from his forehead. “You’re like a human furnace.”

“And you love it,” he said, eyes still closed, mouth curling into a sleepy smirk. “You love when I hold you.”

I didn’t argue. Because I did. Even if he was a little too good at it.

“Can you maybe… back off like two percent?” I asked, gently nudging his leg off mine.

“Nope,” he replied, immediately hooking it right back. “I’m comfortable.”

“You’re attached.”

He lifted his head just enough to blink at me with those sleepy, ocean-blue eyes. “I like being attached to you. You're the only thing in my life that feels... good. You’re not getting away from me, even if you sweat through the sheets.”

The way he said it made my chest ache a little—in the softest way.

So I gave up. I turned toward him instead, tangling my legs with his and sliding my hand up under the fabric of his shirt to rest against the warm skin of his back.

He sighed, completely content, and tucked his head under my chin like he was hiding from the world.

“I wish we could stay like this forever,” he whispered.

“In a clingy cuddle-lock at 1 a.m.?”

He smiled into my neck. “Exactly.”

And I couldn’t help but smile too, because there was something about the way Rafe held me—like he didn’t know how to be okay without me—that made even the heat, the clinginess, and the insomnia worth it.

So I closed my eyes, and let him hold on.