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The return of her muteness.

Little to no appetite unless food was physically shoved in her mouth.

Complete refusal to socialize with anyone unless Ford pushed her into it.

After they got home, that was all going to change in a way she wouldn’t easily comprehend. New rules, stricter guidelines, a whole fucking slew of lessons in putting faith in other people besides him. Her circle of friends needed to expand sensibly but rapidly, and it was past time he stopped cloistering her in the cabin to keep her happy.

He loved being alone with her, fucking adored the hours they spent wrapped up in each other by the fire or in bed, but he’d learned how fickle life was, and if anything ever happened to him in the future—God forbid—he wanted to be a thousand percent sure she was prepared on every level to function without him.

“She’s asleep?” he asked in a low voice.

Levi lifted his hand to adjust the rearview mirror, then glanced in it. “That didn’t take long, did it? I figured we had at least twenty minutes before she gave in.”

“The nurses said she was awake every time they came in. They offered to get her a cot but she refused. She got a couple hours here and there when I snuck her into bed with me, but it’s not enough.”

Levi smirked. “Did you interrogate those nice ladies, Merrick? Shame on you.”

“No interrogation needed, all information was supplied voluntarily. They were concerned for her.”

“You could drive a train through the bruising beneath her eyes,” Levi admitted.

“She’ll get a proper night’s sleep tonight. Please tell me Vi isn’t going overboard with her surprise.” At his friend’s soft snigger, Merrick sighed and thunked his head back against the headrest. “Goddamn it.”

“I don’t think you’ll be too displeased with the final result. Problem is, you gave her too much of a headstart, so she’s had a few days to get ideas up, running, and implemented. If you’d dropped it on her this morning, she would’ve cursed you out, but you’d be getting short and sweet like you asked.”

Merrick laughed, resisting the urge to press his hand to the wound throbbing in his belly. “Of course it’s my fault for being considerate. Next time, I’ll be sure to be a complete and utter asshole.”

“Like there’ll be a next time.” Indicating for a right turn, Levi spun the wheel with one hand, skipping through a set of lights on yellow. “We’ve all seen the way you look at her, Merrick; this is inevitable and a one-time-only deal. Everybody thinks I hide away in my studio and miss all the action, but I’ll let you in on a secret.”

“I’m riveted.”

“The nights I’m not with clients or working on edits, I sneak into the clubhouse and playrooms for candid shots. A shoot is more open and honest when the subjects don’t know they’re front and center of the lens. Don’t give me that look; there’s a clause in the membership agreement covering my ass, and I need a signed release form from my selected models if I want to use the images for anything but personal use.”

“What a relief.”

Reaching into the inside pocket of the door, Levi produced a small manilla envelope, passing it over with a smug grin. “Consider these an engagement gift. They’re edited, but I can tweak them if you like, and print larger copies of any you want hanging on the wall.”

Slowly, aware that every movement was controlled to some degree by his abdominal muscles, Merrick accepted the envelope and warily thumbed open the flap. His eyebrows emigrated to his hairline as he pulled out almost two dozen photographs, all of him with Tamsyn.

Different places, different times, but each and every one followed the same theme.

Love, pure and simple.

Emotionally intimate moments captured on camera and… oh, physically intimate moments as well, he noted when he flipped through to the last portion of photographs. A kiss, the sweetness of a forehead to forehead connection. A handful focused on the latter end of their flogging scene in the dungeon as though Levi had snuck in just in time to capture Tamsyn’s submission at its peak.

“These are beautiful, Levi.” He stopped, drawing one photo in particular to the front of the pack. His heart swelled with warmth, his veins filling with it as he held up the photo so Levi could see it. “When did you take this one?”

Levi clucked his tongue thoughtfully. “Couple weeks back. I had a spare hour before my clients were due, decided to take a walk. She was just there, leaning on the porch rail, staring down the path as though she could will you into existence.”

The photo was of Tamsyn exactly the way Levi described, her arms crossed on the railing outside the cabin door, her chin resting in the dip they formed. Sunlight caught the edges of her hair, but the focal point of the picture was her eyes.

She looked like a woman consumed by her emotions, waiting for her lover to come home. There was a hint of loneliness commanding her expression, but the love and yearning in the tawny depth of her gaze were the inspiration poets and writers dreamed of finding.

Merrick swallowed hard, fighting the unnatural tightness in his throat when he realized how truly fucking lucky he was to be the recipient of that kind of devotion. How the hell did he deserve it, or her? “I think you hit the jackpot with this one, Levi.”

“Can’t take all the credit. There really isn’t a way to fuck that canvas up when her face is that good. She doesn’t have an internal filter, or at least she doesn’t know how to use it, and she wouldn’t know how to fake emotion that deep.” With his eyes on the road, Levi flicked his fingers at the photo. “Remind me to ask her for a waiver.”

“No. This one’s mine.”