The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 125

Chapter 92: Asleep in his arms.

Clara

The silence after is different, it always has been

When the body calms down, when the heat in the skin slowly begins to disappear and breathing returns to its normal rhythm… That strange space arrives where the mind reappears.

I’m lying on my side.

The sheet covers part of my body, although not too much. The room is in darkness and the rain that used

to hit the windows hard now falls softly, like a distant whisper.

Ethan sleeps next to me, naked.

His breathing is deep, calm, and his chest rises and falls slowly. A part of his hair falls over his forehead, messy, and his face has a calmness that I have rarely seen him when he is awake.

I watch him in silence, and a strange emotion appears in my chest. It’s not exactly regret… But it’s not just peace either.

There is something else, something that moves between the two.

Because yes… A small part of me wonders if this was the right thing to do. But another part… much stronger… remember how I felt just a few minutes ago.

How his hands ran over my skin, how my body responded to his as if no time had passed. How he found every corner of me again.

I close my eyes for a moment.

It had been so long since the last time I felt something like this, since the last time I felt… woman. Desired, alive, and the strangest thing of all is that it had to be him.

Ethan’s hands, the same ones that once made me feel this way for the first time.

I open my eyes again and look at him.

My hand moves almost without thinking. I lift it and let my fingers gently brush against his cheek.

His skin is warm. He stirs a little in his sleep, frowns slightly, and I withdraw my hand immediately.

I don’t want to wake him up, so I just keep looking at him. And suddenly… My mind travels far away. To another night, to another city, Paris.

I remember the cold air of that night, the lights shining around every corner, the distant sound of the living city around us.

We had traveled with friends, close friends of our families. People who had always been present in that circle where everyone knows each other, where surnames weigh more than one would like to admit.

But that night it didn’t feel like that, that night it felt different. Ethan was… attentive. Almost charming.

He had taken flowers, real flowers. He was conquering me. And I remember being surprised because I didn’t expect that kind of gesture from him.

Then came dinner. The Eiffel Tower lit up in front of us, the city stretching out like a sea of lights below.

I can still remember how he looked at me that night. With that intensity that seemed to say that I was the only thing that existed at that moment.

And it was there… That’s when I felt something dangerous.

I felt like I was falling in love too quickly with this man. Of this attentive Ethan.

Of this Ethan who seemed so sure of wanting me close.

That night was also the first time, the first time I got naked in front of him.

I remember the shame I felt. The way my heart was beating so hard I thought he could hear it.

Maybe all I want now… It’s just being happy

I close my eyes. Tiredness is starting to weigh on my body now that everything has calmed down. The warmth of the sheets, the silence of the room, the distant sound of the rain… Everything seems to slowly envelop me.

I take a deep breath and turn my body to the opposite side of the bed, I don’t say anything. I don’t look back.

I just let the dream slowly start to get closer, but then I feel it.

The mattress moves just behind me. And a few seconds later, his body comes closer.

I’m not completely asleep yet, so I feel clearly when Ethan moves in his sleep, almost instinctively, as if his body knows where to find mine even in his sleep.

His arm wraps around my waist, and pulls me toward him. My back is close to his chest.

His warm breath brushes the back of my neck as his hand gently rests on my belly.

My heart suddenly flutters.

I didn’t expect that gesture, not now.

I bite my lower lip lightly, trying to control that small emotion that appears without permission inside my chest.

Ethan doesn’t say anything, he’s still asleep. His embrace is neither strong nor possessive.

It is natural, almost unconscious. As if, even in his dreams, he didn’t want me to move too far away.

I stay still for a few seconds, feeling the warm weight of his arm.

The calm rhythm of his breathing, the closeness of his body. And something inside me slowly relaxes.

I close my eyes again, without moving away. Without saying anything, and this time… Sleep finally finds