The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 284

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Chapter 203: A Shower for the Two.

Clara

The two most peaceful days for us had ended, but we had to return to reality.

We were at home, sleeping together and cuddled up, it’s become a habit, going to bed like this and waking up like this…

My alarm was about to go off, but I turned it off a little before… I’ll go to the office early; I have some things to take care of. I want to get my business done before Alexander gets involved or asks questions.

I looked beside me and saw him, Ethan.

He looked calm. I smiled and leaned down, kissed his cheek, and whispered very softly,

“Good morning…” I turned around and carefully got out of bed.

I went to the bathroom, took off my bathrobe, and got ready to take a shower.

The floor was cold; I watched the steam rise as the water fell. The sound of falling water is the first thing

warm, enveloping…

that fills the space, constant

I close the bathroom door

refully, almost on tiptoe, as if any noise could shatter something ! want to preserve. I glance one last time toward the bedroom… and there he is. Ethan… Asleep, peaceful. With that calm his life rarely allows him… but which here, with me, he seems to find effortlessly.

I smile slightly; I don’t want to wake him, not yet.

I turn, gather my hair, and step into the shower.

The hot water falls on my skin, and I immediately close my eyes, tilting my head back slightly.

The warmth washes over me, relaxes me, centers me.

I take a deep breath, because today I’m going back to work… to the routine… to the meetings, decisions, responsibilities. But there’s something different about me, something that remained from those days, from us, from the commitment, from the future. From the “us” that now feels stronger than ever.

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I slowly open my eyes and stay there for a few seconds, simply feeling the water slide over my body… when suddenly… Firm, warm hands on my waist.

I’m not startled, I’m not scared. On the contrary… I smile, because I know perfectly well who it is.

I look down and see his hands on my skin, recognizing them without needing to turn around. I know them; I could recognize them among a thousand.

I gently bite my lower lip as I place my hands over his… intertwining them naturally, as if this gesture were part of a silent ritual between us.

His chest presses against my back, his warmth… contrasting with the water, and I feel it… I feel it completely.

“Good morning, my love…” he murmurs close to my ear.

His voice is still heavy with sleep… deep… soft… intimate.

I close my eyes again.

“Good morning…” I whisper back.

His breath brushes against my skin and then… His lips, a slow, unhurried kiss en my neck. I feel my skin react instantly, prickling with goosebumps. As if I’d been waiting for it.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” he asks, his voice trailing against my ear.

I smile.

“I wanted you to rest…”

He doesn’t answer right away, but I feel it. In how his embrace tightens a little. In how his lips return to my neck… this time slower… more deliberately.

The warmth in my body shifts; it’s not just the water, it’s him. It’s always him. His hands begin to move upward… slowly… tracing my wet skin with a gentleness that disarms me. There’s no rush, no urgency… just that way he has of touching me, as if he knows me completely. As if every inch of my skin belongs to him, and, in a way… it does.

He reaches my chest, and stops there. Not with a sudden, forceful desire… not with urgency. But with a gentleness that makes me close my eyes again, as if he simply wants to feel me, to acknowledge me. To make sure I’m there, with him.

His fingers move calmly, and my breathing changes subtly… slower… deeper… more conscious.

“Ethan…” I murmur.

It’s not a demand, nor a complaint. It’s his name… filled with everything I’m feeling.

He understands, he always does. His forehead brushes against my shoulder and for a moment… stays there. Just holding me, just breathing with me.

The water keeps falling, time stands still again.

I turn slowly in his arms; I want to see him, I need to see him.

His eyes are on me, still with that trace of sleep… but completely present. Completely… in me.

I bring a hand to his face, caressing his cheek.

“You should have stayed asleep…”

He shakes his head gently.

“I prefer this.”

His answer is simple, but it pierces me.

I smile.

“Always so stubborn…”

Alwm du vours.”

“My heart clenches slightly, and before I can say anything else… he leans in and kisses me softly, slowly. As

if he doesn’t want to break the moment, as if he’s savoring it.

My hands move up to his chest, I feel his skin beneath my fingers. The warmth, the firmness, the closeness… Everything.

The kiss lingers like that… unhurried… without overwhelming Intensity… but filled with something deeper. Something that goes beyond desire, something that has a name. And I know it.

“I think I’ll be late,” I say, looking at him with a mischievous smile.

He nods and takes my chin, lifts my face higher, and kisses me.

We barely separate, our foreheads touching.

“I have to go to the office…” I whisper.

I don’t want to say it, but I have to.

He sighs softly.

“I know…”

His hands don’t let go. On the contrary, I feel him tighten his grip on my waist, his hands sliding down to my buttocks, squeezing them and pulling me closer.

“But I don’t want you to leave yet.”

I smile.

“I have responsibilities, Mr. Blackwood.”

“So do I…” he replies. “And yet, I am here.”

I chuckle softly.

“That’s not fair.”

“It never is with you.”

I look at him and in that instant… I remember everything. What we were, what we lost, what we rebuilt. And

what we have now.

I place my hand on his chest… right where his heart beats.

“I’m coming back…”

“I know.”

“I always come back to you.”

His eyes soften and something in his expression changes. As if those words… meant more than they seemed.