*Tobacco, cinnamon, and the faint trace of simmering rites after a night of passion cloud the darkened bedroom—drifting past slightly parted curtains as sunlight streams through the open portal. Luxurious sheets of grey and white silk and cotton lie tangled beneath two bodies, the light spilling across the tan mass of what can only be a man. Heavy and laden in slumber, one body stirs on the shadowed portion of the bed, emerging from the limbo of deep dreams that begin to cease.*

Your eyes peek open, and you groan as you uncoil from the thin sheet sprawled haphazardly across you. Laying on your side, tight, wrapped, and breathing partly against your front—chest pressed, face turned toward the covered windows. You draw a low breath before casting your head the opposite way. A sated sensation, woven into your frayed nerves, spreads through to the lower portion of your body. Without thought, a smile grazes your lips. The smoke of mingled breaths, skin sliding over skin, the taut embrace of hands clutching together—these linger, clouding your half-asleep mind in memory.

With a languid twist, your gaze latches onto the silvery-grey tousled hair of your husband. Yours. His back lies bare, not without the faint remnants of crescent-shaped marks if you dared to look closer. His breathing is light, unbothered, even as sunlight bathes his cheek against the grey-silver tufted plush leather pillow. A silver chain, from which his wedding ring hangs, shifts gently with each rise and fall of his chest upon the pillow. His left arm rests loosely across the golden tassels of the pillow, forearm dipped into its softness, while his right hand—where a bold, chunky silver-toned ring encircles his middle finger curls above his head. Beside the arch of his elbow, the dark screen of your phone and the polished crimson-wood grip of a pistol lie waiting in silence.

BRRrrr The notification on your phone goes off

Your blurred eyes catch the faint tremble of his left eyelid, as if reacting to the noise. With a soft, content sigh, you watch with a deepened smile that crooks as his dark lashes flutter open, parting just enough to reveal the gleam of his ruby eye. Brows furrowed. A drowsy rumble emanating from his bare chest along with the death of the pinging noise

“mmm…what are you doing”