He’d hoped he’d have this. Just this. He’d hoped when he found her this was what they would be. What he saw with Jian-Li and Ming. What he saw with all the women who had been family to him, who had held him close to their hearts, and who he had watched with the men they eventually let in them. The casual affection. The quiet support. The catching of eyes where things were communicated perfectly with no words, things no one else would understand except the two communicating them.

But having it…

It was more than he could have imagined and he’d spent over a century imagining it, building it up, making it so beautiful that deep in his gut he’d worried the reality would never live up to it.

But it did.

And then some.

It got better when he felt Delilah press her cheek to his back and whisper, “It’s early.”

Abel opened his eyes. “Yeah.”

“You didn’t sleep well,” she noted.

He thought she’d slept well, but apparently he was wrong. She’d felt his restlessness and he could tell by her tone and actions she was concerned.

Yes, she lived up to the dream and made it better.

“No,” he confirmed.

She slid her hands around so her arms were wrapped around his stomach. He felt her shift her head so her nose and forehead were pressed to his spine. When she did that, the soft feathering of her breath drifted down his spine and he again had to fight against going hard at the same time he gave the tightness forming in his chest free rein.

After she did this, she gave him a squeeze and assured, “It’ll be okay, honey.”

“I hope so.”

Another squeeze. “It will.”

He didn’t reply, just stared into his eyes in the mirror.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot,” he invited.

He got another squeeze, this one seeming automatic, before she stated, “No recriminations. I don’t know why I need to know, I just do, and it’ll be okay because you’ve been around for a long time. You had a life. I get that. But have you, um…held another woman in your lap like you did with me yesterday?”

“Absolutely not,” he replied immediately and felt her tense at his back.

“Really?”

Abel wrapped his fingers around one of her forearms and gave it a tug. She got him, let him go, and he shifted her to his front, moving in so she was pressed to the sink.

She tipped her head back, lifted her hands to rest them on his chest, and he caught her eyes.

“I honest to God didn’t even know I was doin’ it with you,” he told her.

He saw relief in her face before she murmured, “I kinda sensed that, but I asked because I, well…had to be sure.”

“It’s only been you, Lilah.”

Her peering into his eyes turned to staring.

She understood what he was saying.

Two hundred years and only one.