The Calm
The sea had never looked so harmless.
Waves lapped against the stone terrace of the coastal villa, slow and even, like a heartbeat that had finally found its rhythm. Inside, sunlight drifted through gauzy curtains and painted the room in gold.
Isabella sat on the edge of the bed, both hands resting on her rounded belly. The baby kicked once, a soft flutter that made her smile through tears she hadn't realized were there.
"Someone's impatient," she murmured.
From the doorway, Sebastian's voice answered quietly, "They get that from you."
He leaned against the frame, still pale from the bullet that had torn through his shoulder weeks earlier. A thin scar curved along his jaw where shrapnel had grazed him, but the harder wounds the ones that lived behind his eyes had begun to fade.
He crossed the room, knelt, and pressed his lips to the swell of her stomach. "Morning, little one."
