Her lips remained pressed against his knuckles for a heartbeat too long, then shifted slightly to brush across the curve of his thumb with feather-light delicacy. Her lashes lowered to half-mast, her breathing becoming shallow and deliberate as she pressed another kiss there, softer, more delicate, yet somehow heavier with unspoken emotion.
She was worshipping him through these small touches, expressing devotion and relief and desperate need in the only way that felt adequate.
Mu Yunchen's fingers twitched instinctively beneath her lips, his body responding to her reverent attention despite his exhaustion. A faint shiver passed through him that he couldn't quite suppress, traveling up his arm and settling somewhere deep in his chest.
Zhou Yuxi noticed immediately, of course she did, she noticed everything about him now, cataloged every response and reaction with the focused intensity of someone who had nearly lost this opportunity forever.
