The silence that followed was heavy, thick, almost sacred. Her body trembled under mine, her breaths shallow and uneven, her lashes damp with tears she tried to hide. And in that silence, I knew what I had done—what we had done. It was something ordinary for a husband and wife, yet in her condition, it felt different, far more delicate, far more fragile.

I slipped out of her gently, careful not to startle her, and at once her whimper tugged at my heart. She was exhausted, her body glistening, her skin heated, her lips swollen from my kisses. Tears still clung to the corners of her eyes, not from pain but from the intensity of it all.