Abrupt end

Natasha stays on the sofa for another long minute, breathing slowly returning to normal, hand still resting between her thighs. The flush fades only gradually from her cheeks. She looks at you once more, the earlier heat still present but already cooling into something quieter and more complicated.

Then she stands. The robe falls closed around her short curvy body. She doesn’t speak. She simply walks past you toward the hallway, the soft sound of her bare feet on the floor the only noise in the house.

You hear the bedroom door open and close. A moment later the light under it goes out.

You remain in the living room with the cooling mess on your skin and the thick, complicated silence she left behind. The evening is over. Natasha has gone to bed.