Chapter 58. Two Secrets

Venus POV

“So this is it, the much-talked-about afterglow,” I started a conversation when the silence began to drive me crazy. Rhys hummed beside me in neither agreement nor argument. It was still shocking that I could refer to him by his first name verbally and in my thoughts.

“I must say that I am disappointed in your stamina,” I complained, deliberately riling him up. “We only did it twice, and you literally passed out.”

After we had come together for the second time, he had carried me into the cottage because I could not trust my knees to take my dead weight. I stared up at the roof while he lay on his side, his arm draped around my waist.

Rhys burst into unexpected laughter beside me, and he dragged it out, loud and long. No one could hear us anyway. He rarely let himself laugh, and it was nice to know that he