She’s here right now, asleep in the next room.

I looked over at my comfortable bed and thought about getting in it alone. For about two ridiculous seconds.

Fuck that.

I opened the connecting door through to her sitting room and went right on in. I stopped at the desk because I remembered Finnegan saying she’d been working here all evening. I switched on the desk lamp and saw something which helped me gain a bit more confidence for my future—but mostly just to feel fucking aced at the end of a really shit day.

The contracts were signed. Gabrielle I. Hargreave had signed her name in a very pretty hand to both. I wanted to know her middle name that began with an I. There was so much about Gabrielle I wanted to know.

So, I switched off the light at the desk and went into her bedroom.

Standing over her in the dark like a stalkerazzi, I indulged in a little session of sleep watching. I don’t know for how long because I was in no hurry. The second my eyes found her, time slowed way down for me and the huge weight crushing in on my chest faded away as if it had never been there. The drapes at the window weren’t closed, so the illumination from the summer moon worked to my advantage for appreciating the magnificent vision that was Gabrielle asleep. Even better? Gabrielle asleep in a bed inside my house.

She looked amazing in it. Like a goddess in one of the paintings she was here to sort out.

She stirred in the bed and moved the blanket with her arm, exposing one spectacular breast as the covers slipped down. She was sleeping naked in that bed. And I just couldn’t hold back my need to touch her for another second longer.

I didn’t want to scare her though, so I opted for her hair instead of the bared breast now literally making my mouth water. I caressed a section away from her face to tuck behind her ear, exposing that special place just below her jaw I couldn’t keep away from—uh-oh—right where I’d made a damned love bite on her (up till now) perfectly flawless skin. A rather substantial one at that. Kitten’s skin was very delicate apparently, and I’d have to be more careful in future. Or maybe I wouldn’t. Because having it on her body like a mark claiming her as mine to anyone who saw it there pleased me more than just a little fucking much. The Neanderthal part of my DNA still functioned terribly like that of a primitive male despite eons of human evolution. Couldn’t help it. Didn’t want to feel any differently than I did about Gabrielle. I always felt like carrying her off to my metaphorical cave and spreading her out naked on my furs for fucking. Every chance I got.

She stirred again. And this time when she stirred, she opened her eyes and spoke to me. She said something so simple. Just three small words. But the level of intimacy meant more to me than I think anything else she could have said, especially on this night after everything that’d happened today. Right now, in this small space in time for the two of us, the words she said to me meant more than anything I think I’d ever heard from anyone in my whole life.