Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 72

Chapter 72

Ethan pulled Meadow closer, his lips finding the delicate curve of her neck.

The instant his mouth touched her skin, goosebumps erupted along her body like a silent confession. Her breath caught in a sharp, trembling inhale, and a soft sound escaped her before she could stop it. She shuddered beneath him, instinctively tightening her hold on his arm as though she feared he might disappear again if she loosened her grip.

He inhaled her.

Slowly.

Deeply.

As though he were drawing her into his lungs, into his blood, into places he had kept closed for years.

“Did you miss me much?” he murmured into her ear, his breath warm, wicked, deliberate.

The question was teasing.

But beneath it lay something vulnerable. Something uncertain.

Her fingers clenched into his arm as if that alone could anchor her reality. Her body already knew the answer. It was written into the way she trembled beneath him, into the way her pulse betrayed her through every inch of skin.

She didn’t need words for it.

She hoped, desperately, that he would finally take her all the way.

That he would stop holding the line between them.

That he would stop protecting her from himself.

That he would claim her as fully as she already belonged to him.

Her heart raced.

Her walls tightened.

Her breath staggered.

She could feel him holding back.

Not from lack of desire.

1/5

Chapter 72

But from fear.

Then,

!

“Ethan.”

Amber’s voice sliced through his mind again.

The moment shattered.

The heat between them fractured like glass struck by sudden ice. His body stiffened. His mouth stilled at her skin. The echo of the link ripped him cleanly out of the moment he had almost surrendered to.

He groaned under his breath and pulled away from his wife, leaving her breathing heavy, her lips swollen, her hair a ruined halo of desire. She looked ravishing like that, undone, flushed, wanting.

And he hated himself for leaving her like that.

“What is it?” he snapped sharply through the link.

He did not want this.

He had waited five full days to touch his wife again, and now that she was finally melting into him, his mother had intruded.

“I need some peace and quiet,” he shot back. “I’ll see you after breakfast.”

He shut the link before Amber could respond.

The silence that followed was thick, and charged.

Then he turned back to Meadow with a slow smile.

One meant to reassure.

One meant to soften disappointment.

One meant to promise that he hadn’t pulled away from her.

“We need to shower,” he said softly. “I’ll ask Beatrix to serve breakfast in the room. I want to spend today with you.”

The words were gentle.

Intentional.

And sincere.

|||

O

<

2/5

11:58 Wed, Jun 17

Chapter 72

She smiled, but her heart wasn’t satisfied.

Her body still burned with unsated want.

Her skin still tingled where his mouth had been.

Her pulse still ran wild beneath the surface.

She had been ready.

The disappointment flickered briefly through her eyes, quick and instinctive, but she masked it just as quickly. Instead, her gaze

drifted lower… to his legs.

The medical file returned to her mind.

The exercises.

The circulation.

The faint possibility of improvement.

Her desire softened into resolve.

Before he could rise, she lifted her hands and stopped him.

“Before you get up, we need to work on your legs,” she signed.

The words struck him like a slap.

His smile vanished instantly.

He felt it as a jolt of cold embarrassment, sharp and sudden. The reminder of what he could not do. What he could not feel. What always lingered between him and the world like a wall of glass.

“Please,” she added quickly, fear and concern flooding her movements. “It’s just for blood circulation so your legs stay healthy, nothing more.”

For a heartbeat, offense burned through him.

Old pride flared. Old shame followed fast behind it.

Then he saw her face.

Not pity.

Not pressure.

3/5

11:59 Wed, Jun 170

Chapter 72

Only care.

And restraint.

The tightness in his chest loosened.

He exhaled slowly and nodded. “Okay.”

Her face lit instantly.

Not with triumph.

With relief.

She moved gently, carefully folding the sheets back until his legs were bare. Her hands were soft, hesitant at first, then confident as she began to move him.

Bend.

Straighten.

Again.

Slow.

Deliberate.

Patient.

He stared at the ceiling at first, jaw tight, trying not to think about the absence of feeling. About the way his body simply ended where her hands moved.

He closed his eyes, wishing for sensation.

There was nothing.

No pain.

No pleasure.

No response.

Just silence.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself watching her instead.

|||

O

Г

4/5

Chapter 72

The way she focused.

The way her lips pressed together in concentration.

The way she treated his legs like something precious, not broken.

There was no disgust.

No awkwardness.

No pity.

Only devotion.

To Meadow, he was not a cripple.

He was simply her husband.

And the joy she poured into those quiet movements, like it was not a burden, but an offering, melted something cold and buried

deep inside his chest.

A place he had locked away for seven years.

He found himself wanting this.

Again.

And again.

As often as she wished.

Because somehow,

She made even his silence feel gentle.

Comments

1

Write Comments

<SHARE

|||

O

<

5/5

Underwater: The Silent Luna