“She’ll give you that go-ahead, my guess, tomorrow over breakfast,” Abel finished.

Lucien’s lips again twitched and Callum gave him another grin.

Abel didn’t give them anything.

He turned back to the door, opened it, moved his ass through it, and went directly to his mate.

Chapter Twelve

It Felt Like Falling in Love

Delilah

My eyes opened in the dark.

I felt exceptionally soft sheets, the most heavenly mattress I’d ever experienced, as well as even more heaven.

Being tangled up with Abel.

Entirely tangled up. Our legs. His arms wrapped tight around me, mine around him, my face in his throat, my hair scattered over my neck and shoulder as well as his.

“Sleep, pussycat,” he murmured into the top of my hair.

How he knew I was awake when I didn’t move anything but my eyelids, I didn’t know.

I just knew he wasn’t sleeping, likely from worry for me.

“He taught me how to play checkers.”

I meant Snake.

Abel knew what I meant and his arms gathered me even closer.

“When am I gonna settle in the knowledge I had that kind of love?” I asked, thinking of Snake’s words days before.

“Baby,” he whispered but gave me no answer. Probably because there wasn’t one. It would happen when it happened and I just had to ride the wave of grief until it came to me.

“I see him when I close my eyes, Abel,” I told his throat. “I fall asleep and wake, because in my dreams, I see him lying there in all that blood.”

“Talk to me,” he urged.

“I am.”

“No, bao bei, about Snake. Talk to me. Tell me about him.”

I didn’t know if this was a good idea.

But still, I nestled closer, took a deep breath, and talked to my man about Snake. My father’s friend. Someone I’d known my whole life. Someone I’d laughed with. Someone who’d also been disappointed I’d dated a preppy. Someone who’d come to my high school graduation, given me a hug and a present of a gold crucifix necklace, and told me he was proud of me.

Someone who’d taught me how to play checkers when I was seven.

Someone who’d died for me when I was twenty-nine.

I kept talking, held close in Abel’s arms, tangled up in his powerful limbs, until my words drifted away and I went to sleep.

It wasn’t until later that I’d realize, when I was hurting, my man gave me just what I needed.

* * * * *

The next morning, sitting in Abel’s lap in the big chair by the window, still in my nightshirt, Abel having tugged on jeans, I listened to him talk as I stared at the sea.

I didn’t say anything. Too much was in my head—what had happened the day before and all he was telling me.

I still didn’t say anything when he was done.

He let me have my silence until he was finished letting me have my silence.