🔥 The First Night 🔥

An Exclusive Bonus Scene from Notes of Passion

Thank You for Reading! 💜

You made it to the bonus content—which means you’ve experienced Claire and Jamie’s journey from that moonlit barn to their impossible happily ever after. Thank you for giving their story a chance.

This exclusive scene takes place shortly after Jamie’s resurrection, when they finally have the chance to explore what they’ve been denied for so long. No interruptions. No emergencies. Just two souls who’ve waited an eternity to truly touch.

⚠️ This scene contains explicit sexual content and is intended for adult readers only.

THE FIRST NIGHT

Denver, Colorado — Three Weeks After the Resurrection

The boarding house was quiet.

For the first time since returning from the nexus, there were no emergencies. No Order threats. No students needing guidance. Just a cold winter night, a fire crackling in the hearth, and the man Claire loved standing in the doorway of their room.

“Everyone’s asleep,” Jamie said softly, closing the door behind him. The lock clicked into place—such a simple sound, but it made Claire’s heart race. “Emma’s in her room. Mrs. Chen retired an hour ago. We’re alone.”

Alone.

They’d been alone before, of course. Countless times over the past three weeks. But there had always been something—exhaustion from the ritual, healing from injuries, the constant stream of visitors and well-wishers. Always something keeping them from truly being together.

Tonight, there was nothing.

Claire stood by the window, watching Jamie cross the room toward her. Even now, three weeks into his new life, she couldn’t stop marveling at him. The way the firelight caught the honey-brown of his eyes. The solid reality of his footsteps on the wooden floor. The rise and fall of his chest as he breathed—actually breathed, air filling lungs that worked, sustaining a heart that beat.

“You’re staring,” he said, a smile tugging at his lips.

“I can’t help it.” She reached out, pressed her palm flat against his chest. Felt the steady thump of his heart beneath her fingers. “I spent so long wanting to touch you. Dreaming about what it would feel like. And now…”

“Now you can touch me whenever you want.” Jamie covered her hand with his own, pressing it harder against his chest. “I’m real, Clara. I’m here. And I’m not going anywhere.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.” He lifted her hand to his lips, kissed her knuckles one by one. “I spent twenty-two years as a ghost, watching the world without being able to touch it. Now I have a body. I have you.” His eyes darkened with an intensity that made her breath catch. “And tonight, I intend to use both.”

The words sent a shiver down Claire’s spine. They’d kissed since the resurrection—hundreds of times, each one a miracle. They’d held hands, embraced, fallen asleep tangled together. But they hadn’t gone further. Hadn’t crossed the line into the territory Claire had fantasized about during all those long months of wanting him.

Until now.

“Jamie,” she whispered.

He didn’t let her finish. His mouth found hers, and the kiss was nothing like the gentle ones they’d shared before. This was hunger. This was twenty-two years of longing finally given permission to consume.

Claire gasped against his lips, her fingers fisting in the fabric of his shirt. He tasted like the tea they’d shared after dinner, like winter air, like coming home. His hands found her waist, pulled her closer until there was no space between them—just heat and pressure and the intoxicating reality of his body against hers.

“I’ve wanted this,” he breathed between kisses, “for so long. Do you have any idea what it was like? Watching you undress, watching you sleep, wanting to touch you so badly I thought I’d die from it—” He laughed, a broken sound. “Die again, I mean.”

“I know.” Claire’s hands found the buttons of his shirt, began working them free with trembling fingers. “I used to lie awake at night, imagining what your skin would feel like. Whether you’d be warm or cold. Whether you’d—” She broke off as her hands finally found bare chest, and the sensation stole her words.

Warm. He was so warm. Smooth skin over firm muscle, a light dusting of hair, and underneath it all, that miraculous heartbeat pounding in time with her own.

“Whether I’d what?” Jamie’s voice was rough, strained.

“Whether you’d want me as much as I wanted you.”

He made a sound low in his throat—almost a growl—and suddenly she was moving, being walked backward until her shoulders hit the wall. His hands bracketed her face, tilting it up so she had no choice but to meet his eyes.

“Want you?” His voice was raw with need. “Clara, I have ached for you. Every moment of every day for twenty-two years, wanting what I couldn’t have, dying a little more each time you smiled or laughed or looked at me with those beautiful grey eyes.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “I didn’t just want you. I burned for you.”

“Then stop talking,” Claire whispered, “and burn.”

She felt his control snap.

His hands found the laces at the back of her dress, and unlike his fumbling attempts as a ghost—passing through fabric he couldn’t grip—these hands were sure and capable. The dress loosened, fell. Her chemise followed. And then she was standing before him in nothing but firelight and shadow, watching his face as he looked at her.

“My God,” he breathed. “Clara. You’re—”

“Ordinary,” she finished, suddenly self-conscious. “Just a woman. Nothing—”

“Everything.” He dropped to his knees before her, pressing his lips to her stomach, her hip, the curve of her waist. “You’re everything, Clara. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. The only thing I’ve wanted for two decades.” He looked up at her, and his eyes were bright with emotion. “The only thing I’ll ever want for the rest of my life.”

Claire’s knees went weak. She sank down to meet him, pulling his shirt the rest of the way off, running her hands over shoulders and arms and the planes of his back. Real. Solid. Hers.

“The bed,” she managed. “Jamie, the bed—”

He lifted her like she weighed nothing, carried her the few steps to the narrow bed they’d been sharing chastely for weeks. When he laid her down, the mattress dipped beneath his weight—such a simple thing, but it nearly made her cry. For so long, he’d been beside her without any weight at all. A presence she could feel but couldn’t touch.

Now he was here. Solid and warm and pressed against her in ways that made her gasp.

“Tell me what you want,” he murmured against her throat, his hands exploring her body with reverent wonder. “Anything. Everything. I’ll give you whatever you ask for.”

“I want you.” Claire arched into his touch as his hand found her breast, thumb brushing over her nipple in a way that sent electricity sparking through her veins. “I want to feel you. All of you. I want—” She broke off with a moan as his mouth replaced his hand, hot and wet and devastating. “I want everything.”

He gave her everything.

He mapped her body with hands that trembled slightly—from desire or emotion, she couldn’t tell. He kissed every inch of her skin, murmuring words of love and wonder against her flesh. When his hand slid between her thighs, she cried out, back arching off the bed, overwhelmed by the reality of his touch.

“So wet,” he breathed, his fingers exploring her heat. “So ready for me. Clara, do you know how long I’ve imagined this? Touching you like this? Making you feel—”

His fingers found just the right spot, and Claire’s world shattered.

She came apart in his arms, crying his name, clutching at his shoulders as pleasure crashed through her in waves. He held her through it, still stroking, still murmuring, wringing every last tremor from her body until she lay gasping and boneless beneath him.

“That,” Jamie said, his voice thick with satisfaction, “is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed.”

“More.” Claire pulled at his trousers, suddenly desperate to feel all of him. “Jamie, I need more. I need you inside me. Please—”

He stripped off the last of his clothing, and Claire’s breath caught at the sight of him. Hard and ready, his body as desperate for her as hers was for him. When he settled between her thighs, the heat of him pressing against her entrance, they both went still.

“This is real,” Jamie whispered. “This is actually happening.”

“It’s real.” Claire cupped his face in her hands, looked into eyes she’d loved for so long. “You’re real. And I love you. I’ve loved you since that first night in the barn, when I was terrified and confused and you played me a song to prove you weren’t a demon.”

He laughed—a watery sound—and pushed forward.

Claire gasped as he filled her, slow and steady, stretching her in ways that walked the edge between pleasure and too-much. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him deeper, wanting every inch of him inside her.

“Oh God,” Jamie groaned when he was fully seated. “Clara. You feel— I never— I didn’t know—”

“Move,” she begged. “Please, Jamie, move—”

He moved.

Slow at first, learning her body, finding the rhythm that made her moan. Then faster, harder, as the need between them built to something overwhelming. Claire clung to him, nails raking down his back, her cries swallowed by his kisses. The bed creaked beneath them—such a mundane sound, and yet it felt like music.

“I love you,” Jamie gasped against her throat. “Clara, I love you, I’ve always loved you, I’ll love you until the stars burn out—”

“I love you too.” She could feel the pleasure building again, coiling tighter with every thrust. “Jamie, I’m close, I’m going to—”

“Let go.” He changed his angle slightly, hitting a spot that made her see stars. “Let me feel you fall apart. Let me catch you.”

She fell.

The orgasm ripped through her, more intense than anything she’d ever experienced. She screamed his name—probably loud enough to wake the whole boarding house, but she didn’t care—and felt him follow her over the edge, his body shuddering, his release pulsing hot inside her.

For a long moment, neither of them moved. They lay tangled together, breathing hard, hearts racing in tandem. The fire had burned low, casting the room in soft orange light.

“That was…” Jamie started.

“Worth waiting for,” Claire finished.

“Worth dying for.” He lifted his head to look at her, and his smile was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. “Worth coming back for.”

“Don’t ever leave me again.” She traced his jawline with her finger, still marveling at the solid reality of him. “Promise me.”

“I promise.” He rolled to the side, pulling her with him until she was draped across his chest. “I spent twenty-two years as a ghost, Clara. Twenty-two years of watching without touching, wanting without having, loving without being able to show it. I’m not wasting a single moment of this second chance.”

“Good.” She pressed a kiss to his chest, right over his heart. “Because I have a lot of moments I’d like to spend with you.”

“Oh? What kind of moments?”

Claire’s hand slid lower, found him already stirring again. “The kind that involve very little sleep and very few clothes.”

Jamie groaned—a sound of pure masculine pleasure—and rolled her beneath him again.

“Mrs. Chen is going to complain about the noise,” he murmured against her lips.

“Let her complain.” Claire pulled him closer. “I’ve waited too long for this to be quiet about it.”

They weren’t quiet.

They weren’t quiet for a very, very long time.

And when dawn finally broke over Denver, painting the sky in shades of pink and gold, they lay tangled together in the narrow bed—exhausted, sated, and more in love than ever.

“Good morning, husband,” Claire murmured sleepily.

“Good morning, wife.” Jamie kissed her forehead. “Ready to face the day?”

“In a minute.” She snuggled closer, pressing her ear to his chest, listening to the heartbeat that had become her favorite sound. “I want to stay in this moment just a little longer.”

“We have all the moments in the world now.”

“I know.” Claire smiled against his skin. “But I still want to savor this one.”

Outside, the world went on—full of challenges and dangers and the endless work of building their school. But here, in this room, in this bed, wrapped in the arms of the man she’d brought back from death itself…

Here, everything was exactly as it should be.

Here, at last, they were home.

THE END

💜 Thank You!

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