ASHER
I woke up to Reed's scent before I woke up to anything else.
It filled the entire room, warm, deep and layered in the particular way it got when he'd been sleeping, when all the controlled, deliberate edges of him softened into something that had no audience and wasn't performing for anyone.
His pheromones wrapped around me like something physical and for the three seconds between sleep and full consciousness I just lay there and breathed them in and felt something in my chest settle into a quiet I hadn't felt in weeks.
Then I remembered where I was. Reed's room, Reed's bed and Reed's arm wrapped around my waist from behind, heavy and warm, his chest rising and falling steadily against my back.
I lay very still and let the memory of last night come back in pieces. Him pulling me away from the sink, the corridor and into this room. The way he'd said I miss you in that rough, unmanaged voice that didn't sound like the Reed I'd spent a year plus learning to navigate.
