Claimed By The Mafia Don (Ariella and Asher) novel Chapter 327

ARIELLA

Asher didn't move at first. He just breathed, a long, shaky exhale that vibrated against my skin. His hands were wrapped around my thighs, his grip firm but not demanding. It was the grip of a man holding onto a life raft.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice muffled by the duvet. "I didn't mean to wake you."

I reached down, my fingers finding the messy hair at the nape of his neck. "What are you doing? Is everything okay?"

He finally looked up. In the glow of the moon filtering through the blinds, his face looked raw. Not sad, exactly, just stripped of the armour he wore during the daylight.

"I just needed to know you were real," he said. He sounded exhausted in a way sleep couldn't fix. "The world feels so thin lately. Like I’m walking through a fog, and everything is just... noise."

He leaned forward, pressing his cheek back against my belly, listening to the rhythm of my breath.

"But here? You’re warm. You’re solid. You’re right here." He tightened his hold on my legs, pulling me a fraction closer. "I needed to remind myself why I’m doing any of it. I needed to feel alive again."

The fatigue that had felt like lead in my veins began to soften. I knew that he was driving himself crazy over what happened. I knew he blamed himself and that hurt. I didn't tell him to move. Instead, I shifted, opening myself to him further, inviting that anchor he so desperately needed. I ran my hand over his shoulder, feeling the tension there begin to melt under my touch.

"I'm here," I whispered, pulling his head up so I could look into his eyes. "I’m here for you, you and I are a team.... What happened this evening wasn't your fault."

"I should have stopped it....."

"And you did.... We are fine. Leon and I are alive right now because of you. We are all okay."

He didn't say anything else. He just leaned in, burying his face in the crook of my hip, and for the first time in weeks, his breathing levelled out into the steady, peaceful cadence of a man who had finally found his way home.

I thought he had fallen back to sleep, but then Something in the air snapped. One moment I was falling back to sleep, and the next, Asher’s shadow fell over me again. He didn’t just lean in to me; he dived.

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