Two days passed quickly.
The constant hum of the distant activity, the clean scents of earth and polished stone, and the disorienting scale of the estate all started to feel less like a dream and more like a gilded cage.
In the quiet hours of the third night, Leon lay on the large bed in the room allocated to him, staring at the carved ceiling when the door swung open without a knock.
Zoe slipped inside, already dressed in a soft, sleeveless nightgown of pale grey silk. Before Leon could sit up, she jumped onto the bed, making the mattress dip.
"Bored already?" she said before he could react. Her fingers traced a curious path down the center of Leon's bare chest, then moved over the planes of his stomach.
"Whoa!" Leon yelped, his body tensing. He swung her hand away with a startled urgency and scrambled backward on the bed until his shoulders hit the headboard. "What are you doing?"
