“No. Take your time. Have a bath. They say we can order up breakfast. I’ll take care of that for you. Then I’m gonna go get some blood and, after that, talk to our people. You need to take care of you. Give Snake some of your headspace. Come to terms with what he gave you. I’ll be back.”

“I wanna check in on Chen and Jabber.”

“You can do that after you take care of you.”

“That is taking care of me.”

“No, that’s my Lilah takin’ care of other people. But my job is to take care of you. This morning is yours. You don’t need to think of destiny. Fuck, you don’t even need to give your headspace to Snake. You just need to do what you need to do and have the space and time to do it.”

One could say having a long hot bath in the huge, super-luxuriant bathroom that was all ours, hanging in the equally huge and super-luxuriant bedroom, taking time to get ready, have breakfast, get shit sorted in my head, all in a stronghold of The Vampire Dominion where no one could hurt us and I could stare out at the sea, was not a bad idea.

I cuddled closer even as I moved my head to catch his eyes.

He felt them, tipped his chin, and gave his to me.

“You get the sucky jobs,” I said softly.

His eyes went hard. “Takin’ care of you is not a sucky job.”

Okay, I knew how he felt about that.

And I liked how he felt about that.

So much I felt my nose sting with oncoming tears and shoved my face in his throat so he wouldn’t see me cry again.

He curled a hand around the back of my head and held me there.

“I like you,” I sobbed into his throat.

I felt his body tense, then relax, and there was humor in his voice when he said, “Well, that’s good.”

“Like…a lot,” I clarified.

“That’s good too.”

“You’re very sweet,” I told him.

Abel didn’t reply to that.

My voice was croaky with tears when I went on, “You treat me right, and you’re respectful of my family, and you’ve given me more by giving me yours, and you’re great in bed.”

“That’s it?” he teased.

“You’re hot.”

He shoved my face in his throat reflexively when his entire body tensed again, but this time, because he burst out laughing.

Startled by the sound, I pulled my face out of his throat and watched him do it.

Yep, he was hot.

He kept doing it even as he focused on me, his hand sliding from the back of my head so he could use a thumb to rub the wet on my cheek away.

The laughter was gone when he said gently, “I like you too.”