Irene woke up to an arm hugging her waist and a hard body pressed up against her. She felt unbelievably conscious of the man beside her. It was his possessive grasp that caused her to wake up in the first place.
However, the more he woke up, the more he seemed to behave himself because he soon opted to gently kiss her shoulder that had been exposed at some point in the night and distanced himself before he could get carried away.
"My beautiful wife," he uttered as he stood up. "Sorry for waking you."
She thought for sure that he would push for a bit more. Perhaps their kiss would lead to something else as it had the days after the wedding.
Instead, he went towards the shirt he had shed the night before since the weather was still warm and opted to put it back on. There was no point in getting in something too fancy when they still had half a day's worth of travel ahead.
He faced away as he got himself together. Irene found herself agonizing over each movement.
