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Clothing and smoothies clutched somewhat awkwardly to my chest, I turned toward the door. “If you want to go in to work now, go right ahead,” I called over my shoulder. “We’re fine. We’re just going to sleep.”
Back at the guest bathroom, Luca accepted his smoothie with a strained smile and kissed me on the cheek before heading back to his nest. I leaned against the wall, sipping the frosty mix of yogurt, almond protein, and frozen berries while I waited for the shower to turn off.
“I’ve got some clothes for you to wear,” I called through the closed door. “I’m going to pass them through.”
Without waiting for a reply—since this was Emiel, and a reply might never come—I opened the door a crack and shoved my arm inside, depositing the T-shirt and pants in a messy pile on the edge of the vanity without peeking.
I closed the door again, finishing my liquid breakfast while I waited. Five minutes later, Emiel emerged, stiff and wary.
“I am so incredibly jealous that you don’t have a hair routine,” I told him, indicating his shaved head. I handed him the third smoothie. “Here. Drink this.”
He stared at it for a long moment, as though I’d handed him a small wild animal.
“It’s strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry,” I said. “Now stop blocking the doorway. I need ibuprofen. Come to think of it, you do, too. Have you taken anything for the pain in the last twelve hours?”
He shook his head slowly and stepped out of the doorway.
I closed the door, relieved my bladder, washed my hands and face, and delved into the medicine cabinet. After popping two painkillers and washing them down with water from my cupped hands, I shook out three more pills for the massive alpha waiting outside.
After ensuring that he took them and finished his smoothie, I retrieved the oversized insulated cup and set it down next to mine.
“Bed,” I said, pointing imperiously. “We are sleepingso muchtoday.”
“We?” he asked, his tone cautious.
“It’s a huge bed,” I told him. “If you can’t stand the thought of me in it with you, I’ll grab some of the pillows and blankets and sleep on the floor.”
“It’syourbed,” he said. “I’m not making you sleep on the floor in your own room.”
“Terrific,” I replied, and climbed in before he could figure out exactly what he’d just agreed to.
He looked almost comically flummoxed as I scooted over to the far side, building an exaggerated pillow wall in the middle of the bed and tucking the blankets around me.
“There. Your virtue is safe. Now get in.” I pointedly turned onto my side with my back facing the pillow wall. “Like I said, we’re sleeping.”
Princess hopped down from where she’d been sitting on my dresser. A moment later, a small weight dipped the mattress. She immediately started purring.
After a much longer pause, Emiel’s body settled on the far edge of the bed. I waited, not moving or making a sound, and eventually he shifted, lying down on his half. The blankets pulled more snugly around me. He must have been lying on top of them—yet another barrier to separate his body from mine.
“Sleep well, Emiel,” I said softly.
He didn’t reply.
We lay unmoving for some time, in what should have been an incredibly awkward tableau. And it wasn’t that I was unaware of the awkwardness. It was just that I was so freaking tired I couldn’t see straight. Despite the mid-morning light outside of the bedroom window, sleep took me after only a few minutes.
It was the deep, dark, dreamless kind of sleep that came with true exhaustion, and I wasn’t sure how long I stayed submerged beneath its undertow. When I next woke up, it was still light outside. But the pillow wall I’d so carefully built had been dismantled, and I’d kicked all the covers down to my ankles. I was lying half on Emiel’s chest, and his heavy arm was wrapped around me, holding me in place. Slow, deep breathing ruffled my hair. The scent of bergamot and cinnamon filled my nostrils, interwoven with my own familiar soap.
A tight knot of tension that had been wound around my shoulders and lungs unraveled so abruptly that I felt dizzy for a moment. Mindlessly, I nuzzled into the space at the juncture of Emiel’s neck and shoulder, where my head fit perfectly.
A light purr vibrated against me. Princess had made a home in the dip where our bodies met. Then, a moment later, a deeper,rougher alpha purr rumbled up from the chest I was resting against.
I closed my eyes, a smile tugging at my lips, and let sleep wash over me once more.