I have no idea what we are doing or what the future holds, but I will keep her safe. I will keep her here at the house. I will keep her with me.

25

Annie

I wake up wrapped in the sheets, warm, content, and although my body is a little sore, I have zero regrets. If I could do last night with Dante all over again, I would. I would do it every day for the rest of my life. Last night with him was so much more than I was expecting. And I had high hopes, especially after my first sexual encounter at the trailer park was so lackluster. But I knew Dante would be different. The way he makes me feel, the way my body adapts to his, the way he claimed me and made me his. I feel wanted for the first time in my life, and I want to shout it from the rooftops that I am his and he is mine. I feel like we connected, right from the start.

“What’s got you smiling like that so early in the morning, Bella?” he says, surprising me. I sit up, clutching the sheets to my bare chest, seeing him sitting in his armchair with a coffee.

“You’re still here?” I ask, my heart and body warming at the sound of his voice.

“Well, I have to go soon, but I wanted to see you before I left,” he says, looking at me over the top of his coffee cup as he takes a sip of his morning brew. I smile again, because this is the first time he has been here in the morning when I wake up, and so it is a new step for us. One I welcome. He puts the cup down and leans back in his armchair, the same position he has held each and every night since the moment I arrived. He is freshly showered and dressed for work in his black jeans and black shirt, his sleeves rolled up, showcasing his forearms. He looks deadly, yet I am not afraid of him in the slightest. I pull back the blankets, the cool morning air hitting my bare skin, immediately making it prickle. Still naked from last night, I slip out of his bed and slowly pad across the thick carpet floor to where he is sitting.